Maidstone vs Guildford RFC

Away at Guildford, Saturday 20 October, 2007, Kick Off – 3pm

Powergen League, London 2 South

by Trevor Langley

For twenty five minutes, Maidstone played superb rugby, scoring four goals and a penalty to take a 31-0 lead. They then took their collective foot off the gas with the result they let Guildford back into the game. Their final victory, by 31 points to 24, required some dogged resistance in the final quarter.

After the ham string injury he picked up at North Walsham, Martin Arnold handed over the captain’s role to Steve Matthews, who himself returned to the second row after a one week absence. The return of Hugh Ridgeon at open side gave a more balanced look to the back row, while a new centre pairing of Mark Ryan and Aiden Bayley, with Scott Mitchell at full back, promised attacking potential.

This expectation took only five minutes to be realised, when Bailey made a good break in the Guildford 22 to release Houlihan and although he was stopped short of the line, from the resulting scrum, Ryan found a way through the Guildford defence to score under the posts. The conversion was a formality to post a 7-0 lead.

From the restart, Maidstone immediately made ground through some astute forward passing. The ball was released from the subsequent maul to Mitchell who found a gap to release Houlihan who cut back inside to score half way out. With Craig Whitehead again adding the points, the lead moved to fourteen points.

Maidstone continued to pile on the pressure, resulting in a penalty, which Gary Whitehead drove deep into the Guildford 22. From the resulting line out, Maidstone caught and drove to the line with Fin Davis getting the touch down and Craig Whitehead adding the points once more.

Guildford could find no sanctuary from the incessant attacks mounted by Maidstone, and, on twenty minutes, they gave away a penalty in their 22 when caught offside at a ruck, with Craig Whitehead adding three more points to the Maidstone score.

The Stone’s purple patch continued when, from their own 22, a long pass from Gary Whitehead to Houlihan quickly took play into their opponents half where Mitchell came into the line to threaten another try. The Guildford defence held but, with quickly recycled ball, Scott Mitchell this time found a gap and went over under the posts, making it simple for his brother to add another conversion.

It had all been so easy to this point but complacency set in from the restart. What should have been another routine catch by Maidstone was dropped, urgency to regain the ball went missing and Guildford moved the ball swiftly to the Maidstone line. Fly half Sayer probed the Maidstone defence until, at the third attempt he found a gap to score.

The score remained at 31-5 until half time but in the interim, Guildford replaced their tight head prop and this proved a decisive move as it helped give the home side a decisive edge in the subsequent tight and loose forward play.

As the first half had been dominated by incisive Maidstone rugby, so the second was dominated by Guildford’s efforts. With a good supply of ball, fly half, Sayer set up a number of promising openings, the first for No 8 Phillips, who took an inside pass on the Maidstone 22 to brush past a number of tackles to score wide out ten minutes after the restart. The second, after a teasing kick ahead and maul, released winger Wilde to dance past Maidstone defensive cover to make the right corner and bring the score to 31-17.

The remainder of the half can be summarised as desperate defence by Maidstone with flashes of attack to relieve the pressure. But the zip that had exuded from the team in the first quarter eluded them. A final try by Wilde, deep into injury time, reduced the deficit to seven points and made the final result appear perhaps closer than it should have been. But Maidstone must learn to close out games when they have established such solid platforms if they are to progress into the upper regions of their league.

 

Team

Rob Jeffrey; Fin Davis; Matt Plowman (Simon Hollister 57 mins): Steve Matthews (capt); Andy Bacon: Nick Taylor (Sam Johnson 32 mins); Hugh Ridgeon; Ben Court: Craig Whitehead; Gary Whitehead: Nick Deissner;Aiden Bayley; Mark Ryan (Cris Leggat 59 mins); Damian Houlihan: Scott Mitchell:

Scorers:

Maidstone

Tries: Ryan, Houlihan, Davis, Mitchell,

Conversions: Craig Whitehead (4)

Penalty: Craig Whitehead (1)

Guildford

Tries: Sayer, Phillips, Wilde (2)

Conversions: Sayer (2)

Penalties: -