Mobbs-Smith anticipates another cracker with Welsh
Maidenhead RFC: Maids hoping to build on crucial home win over Hammersmith after Christmas lay-off
Maidenhead head coach David Mobbs-Smith will be hoping for another competitive clash against London Welsh this weekend, with the two sides having contested some crackers in recent seasons.
Maids’ match against Welsh back in late September was probably one of the matches of the season so far, with the hosts going down to a 36-40 loss at Braywick Park in a game that went down to the wire.
The home side came into the game looking to build on their 31-22 win at home to Camberley in their previous home match but despite scoring 36 points – and a host of brilliant tries with Alex Turton getting the pick of those – they were never able to shake off their visitors who fought back for a well-earned win.
Despite this, Maids remained in the clash and were looking for holes in the Welsh defence close to their try line as the referee put his whistle to his lips to signal full-time.
This season London Welsh sit fifth – similar to last season – but it’s Maidenhead whose form has dropped off from the 2022/23 campaign. They’re ninth going into the second half of the campaign having picked up a morale-boosting and muchneeded 32-7 win over Hammersmith & Fulham in their last match before the Christmas break.
Last season, Maids and Welsh played each other three times, with Mobbs-Smith’s side hammering their visitors 56-17 on the opening day of the season. Welsh claimed revenge with a narrow 20-10 win when the sides met again in early March, but Maidenhead had the last laugh, progressing past them with a 28-15 away win in the early rounds of the Papa Johns Plate, a run that took Mobbs-Smith’s side to the final where they were beaten 40-26 by Macclesfield.
“It should be a great match,” said Mobbs-Smith. “They’re doing really well this season, like they did last season. We’re probably performing below what we were doing, so going away to them is going to be a big challenge.
“Let’s see how we can perform. We had a great game against them at the start of the season.
“Hopefully, we can have something similar, but we come out on the right side of the result this time.
“Our away games against them last season were both close. It was a one-score game in the first one, we ran them close. And then the cup game we actually sneaked it. So, we go there with an air of confidence, irrespective of what our league form suggests. We know we can perform against them. They present a big, physical challenge, but hopefully, we’ll have the right players out on Saturday.”
A win for Maids on Saturday would see them close the gap to eighth placed Hammersmith & Fulham and seventh placed Brighton – two teams they could conceivably catch this season. However, the team’s away record hasn’t been the best, with the side managing just one away win all season, a 26-22 victory at Marlborough on November 4.
“We have to maintain the form we showed against Hammersmith for the rest of the season,” added the head coach. “The season will take care of itself if we can play to that standard. We have to play key games at home against four or five of our rivals who are in the bottom half of the table.
“London Welsh is a different matter; they’ll be aiming for the top four to play in the cup. After a long lay-off they should be relatively strong. I’m expecting both sides to be at full strength barring any long-term injuries.
“We have a couple of boys out, but it’s a pretty strong side and we’ll go there in high spirits. Training was great last night, the boys looked fired up, but I’m guessing they’re in the same zone so I’m expecting a great game.
“It’s fantastic to play against one of the great rugby clubs of England.”
Forward Dan Hostetler has a damaged hand and will have to see a specialist about that, so it’s unlikely he’ll be seen anytime soon in the magenta and black, while Antonio Kiri Kiri will also sit out Saturday’s match through suspension, but he should be back for the home game against CS Stags on January 13.
They’ll be missed in the game against Welsh, but Mobbs-Smith expects the home side will have similar issues.
“They’ll be the same I’d have thought, they’ll have a couple of big players out too,” he said.
“But yesterday, our physio room was empty, because we haven’t played for a few weeks. That’s likely to change over the next few weeks, but January is a big month for us. We play Welsh, CS Rugby, and Horsham (January 27) at the end of the month.
“You pick up some points from those matches and we’ll be having a different conversation at the end of January. If we pick up negative results, we’ll be pretty much where we are now. But we have two huge home fixtures this month so hopefully we can do something in those games.”
With nine matches left to play, the aim for Maids now is to qualify for the end-of-season Papa Johns Plate competition, which they got to the final of last year. The top four sides qualify for the cup, the next four go into the Plate and currently Maids will contest the Shield. Maids are currently ninth, six points behind Hammersmith.
“In theory you can be relegated, and you’ll still play in the Shield,” said Mobbs-Smith. “Well, the position we’re in now, that has to be the aspiration (the Plate) and it’s the competition we played in last year. We made it to the national final, but right now our priority is just to go out and play well against Welsh and we’ll see where that puts us. January is a big month because two of our main rivals (Marlborough and Bournemouth) will play the game they have in hand on us. But that will mean they have to play back-to-back games and teams can pick up injuries doing that. But it’s in our own hands now. We have to perform in our matches and if we do well enough, it’s up to the others to do better than us. We can only control the games we play.”