Maidenhead U13B 0 - Newbury U13B 57

Blues continued their bonus-point winning ways with a shut-out win against Maidenhead in BYL Division 2. The win was built on a strong performance by the forwards, who won a lot of possession, combined with some very strong running by the Newbury "big-guys" who the Maidenhead backs were decidedly reluctant to tackle. Maidenhead never really threatened the Blues try-line.

The first five minutes were fairly even with no hint of what was to come. The Blues opened the scoring from a ruck just outside the 22 which they won, the ball was driven on deep into the Maidenhead 22, the ball was recycled and fed out to the backs and to Alex Sutton who then made a neat inside pass to Zac Leonard who scored. The conversion was missed. The Blues scored again soon after. A scrum on the half-way line was taken against the head, the ball quickly fed down the back line to Callum Hambrecht on the wing who beat the covering winger and full-back to score under the posts. David West kicked the conversion (12-0).

The Blues followed up soon after. Blues stole the ball from a ruck on the Maidenhead 22. David West fed the ball back into the forwards who drove to within 10 metres of the Maidenhead line before popping it up to Will Butcher who showed great strength in driving over to score under the posts, aided by a great supporting shove from the remainder of the pack. David made the conversion (19-0).

Soon after Matt King picked up from a ruck on the Maidenhead 10 metre line and charged through several attempted tackles to score under the posts. David made the conversion (26-0).

Next a maul on the Maidenhead 22 was won by the Blues forwards, the ball was fed blind to Callum on the wing who crashed through the covering tackles to score his second try in the corner. The conversion was missed (31-0).

HALF-TIME

The turn-round saw the Blues with the wind at their backs so we were hopeful of a lot more points in the second half. However, the first 5 or 10 minutes after the break saw the Blues suffer from a bit of what one of the Maidenhead coaches called "White-line Fever", everything got a bit messy as everyone fancied their chances of picking up a try. We also managed to kick the ball forward from a couple of 5 metre scrums on our put-in! Thankfully the boys got it together and went back the basics of winning rucks and getting good quality ball. A Maidenhead line out in the middle of their 22 was stolen by the Blues, Euan fed David West who charged through several attempted tackles to score under the posts. David also made the conversion (38-0).

The next score saw Callum receive the ball on the half-way, race through the Maidenhead backs and score under the posts. David made the conversion (45-0). Callum then followed that up with his fourth try by crashing over in the corner from a tap-penalty in the middle of the Maidenhead 22. The conversion was missed (50-0).

Not to be out-done the forwards then created a try for one of their own at the end. Matt King broke from halfway line to the Maidenhead 22, the forwards then drove the ball on towards the try line via a couple of quick rucks before Sam Swann dived over to score under the posts. David made the conversion (57-0).

A great performance from the Blues, the forwards did their job by winning a lot of rucks and the tackling was much better throughout the team. With some better handling in the back-line and without their "funny 5 minutes" the score could have been higher - so still some things to be worked on in training before the next league match.

Callum Hambrecht with his 4 tries was selected by Maidenhead as the Blues Man-of-the-Match.