Our first chance of competitive rugby in 2010 on a playable pitch with a squad of 18 on paper, thank you Santa! The lads were raring to go as the pre-game team talk and warm up got underway. We lost a couple of players before we got going, but still ended up with a full 15 and a sub.

Maidenhead ‘B’ turned up with a full squad and a handful of large replacements. They likewise hadn’t played or trained due to the recent poor weather, so were excited to play a game.

The match started, ARFC got right into the fray, but we could see straight away that we were up against a strong and technically capable opposition.  We were a bit slow at the breakdown, Maidenhead quickly capitalising on some slow ruck ball, and snatching up to move the ball out to the backs, first try – well converted within 5 minutes. Our forwards battled hard with Maidenhead, we did well at the scrums, but couldn’t make the most of winning the ball. Line outs were another story, Maidenhead had a few 6 footers who managed to dominate line-out ball. Maidenhead’s 2^nd and 3^rd tries followed some good forward and back interplay.

I must say at this stage that our lad’s heads didn’t drop, we encouraged them to keep going and battle for every ball, and they responded despite the growing Maidenhead lead. At halftime we were 19-0 down.

The 2^nd half was a different matter:  ARFC capitalised on the efforts of the first half, and started to push Maidenhead back into their half. We used our only Sub, Joe came on to replace Aiden. Overall the team effort was immense, although Chris and I both agreed that some of the individual efforts and interplay needs a specific mention. First off, Callum for his excellent tackling and fast break away runs along the wing and through the centre. Joe sprinted like a gazelle across the width of the pitch on several occasions, proving that his recent major surgery hadn’t affected either his game awareness or tackling. Both Sam and Jamie weighted in with some great tackles in both halves, Sam putting a couple of testing kicks behind the Maidenhead forward line.  Jack H and Rhys also made some great disruptive tackles and fought like lions with the forwards at the breakdown. Gavin and Gregg A made their usual efforts off the scrum and during the breakdown, leaping in all directions to grab the ball.

All of this great team and individual effort added up to Maidenhead only putting one more try past us in the whole of the 2^nd half. Despite some text book Maidenhead full pitch length touch finding torpedo kicks, a cheeky drop goal attempt and numerous well worked forward and backs moves, Maidenhead just couldn’t get any more points. The ARFC team battled on in the last 10 minutes and were in a commanding position, we held the possession and pushed Maidenhead hard, but sadly couldn’t convert the increased possession into a decent scoring opportunity.

Overall, a 500% better game than the last effort against Windsor. The game ended 24-0 to Maidenhead, but all parents and club coaching staff were proud of the performance and spirit shown by the Aldermaston team. We found it difficult to identify a man of the match award after this game, we had a choice of 4 stand out players, but the award went to Cameron for his fantastic efforts in the front row, great tackling, good game awareness and for the runs he made cutting through the massive Maidenhead forwards.

The standard of Maidenheads ‘B’ team, with some county players, ‘A’ team development players and an obvious skills gap between the 2 teams, exaggerated by the technically able squad they brought along today, has both myself and Chris challenging the merits of the recently implemented Berkshire league split division system. Despite the mismatch, the lads rose to the challenge and can hold their heads up high after a great effort, well done lads. Next Match Reading away on 7^th Feb 2010

Match photo's here: http://www.aldermastonrugby.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&page=slideshow&gid=72&Itemid=57

MOTM: Cameron, for his fantastic effort against the Maidenhead giants!