On an afternoon, with a surprising autumnal nip in the air, on a well grassed pitch and no wind, the prospect of an exciting encounter with newly promoted Chobham was anticipated. This Surrey-based club, formed in 1968, handsomely won their league last year and the question on everyone’s mind was, would their obvious enthusiasm to be playing at a higher level be countered by Maidstone’s experience? The answer was resoundingly negative, with Chobham running out 20 -3 winners after a disjointed, and ultimately, poor display by the Stones.
In this first league game of the new season, four new faces graced the starting line up for Maidstone. Piers Morgan and Nick Van Mol, integral parts of the successful U.17 team last year, stepped in at fly half and left wing respectively, while Ben Williams made his first start at prop with Justin Murphy, who joined the club last year after playing for Barking in the national leagues, at hooker. The remainder of the side had a familiar look but with Sam Johnson preferred to Andy Bacon in the second row, the concern about the stability of the scrum in set pieces, evident in the previous Saturday’s encounter at Charlton Park, was uppermost in the mind.
Ultimately, it was the lineout and the poor ball retention that undermined the home team’s efforts, and not the scrum, which was responsible for this loss. Indeed, two hooks against the head in the opening 20 minutes and the ability to get the Chobham scrum going backwards on their own put-in should have provided the platform Maidstone needed to consistently pressurise the opposition.
A bad injury to the Chobham prop, Andy Bennett, after 25 minutes that resulted in a 30 minute delay to the game while an ambulance was called, spoiled the first half. Up to this point, Chobham had shown the better rugby but had wastefully spurned two kickable penalties in the Maidstone 22. Maidstone seemed totally unable to find either of their jumpers in the lineout and a succession of plays were lost to the opposition with the result that no real pressure was applied to the visitors defence.
After 35 minutes, and during an improving spell from Maidstone, Francis put a long kick down the touchline which was run back by the Chobham wing into centre field. He linked well to start a counter attack that ended up with a try in Maidstone’s left corner to open the day’s scoring. A swift reply saw Francis convert a penalty from in front of the posts but Chobham answered this with a penalty of their own on the stroke of half-time, to go in with an 8-3 lead.
The second half saw some improvement in the Maidstone display, particularly in the lineout, where the introduction of Fin Davis after 10 minutes restored the solidity that was the norm last season in this area. The three quarters also showed more promise with one first phase move sweeping to within metres of the Chobham line, only a poorly executed pass preventing winger Houlihan from adding the final touch.
But it was the increasingly confident visitors that added two further tries, one converted, in the final quarter of the game. The first, a catch and drive from a lineout on the 5-mtere line by second row Berrigan and a second from further out when winger Bates smuggled the ball out of a rolling maul to surprise the defence.
Despite an increasingly frenetic finish, when Maidstone looked to run the ball from every position, their effort produced no reward. While there is much to work on to improve on this performance, the tackling was generally reliable not least from Francis and Van Mol, the youngest and smallest of the players. Ball retention remains the biggest obstacle to building pressure from multiple phases of attack and this is something Maidstone must work on if they are to be more competitive in their next game.
Team
Rob Jeffrey (Martin Farbrace 60 mins); Justin Murphy (Fin Davis 51 mins); Ben Williams: Steve Matthews; Sam Johnson: John O’Brien; Nick Sargent; Ben Court: Gary Whitehead; Piers Francis: Damian Houlihan; Martin Arnold (capt); Mark Ryan; Nick Van Mol (Dane Smith 76 mins): Nick Diessner:
