MAIDSTONE VS CONEY HILL RFC

At Coney Hill, Gloucester; Saturday 28 October 2006

EDF Energy - National Trophy, Round 1

By: Trevor Langley

Maidstone travelled to Coney Hill, a local club in the suburbs of Gloucester, to play this National Trophy match, with a degree of trepidation. Coney Hill is currently top of South West 2 league and has been in the mix for promotion for the last two years. On the positive front, a full player complement was available for selection by the Stones with a number of players returning from injury and unavailability, providing a very strong bench.

With a gusting wind blowing across the pitch, the conditions were marginally in the home sides favour in the first half but with a giving surface and no rain in prospect, both sides showed in the opening exchanges that they intended to run the ball at every opportunity. Indeed, it soon became clear that unlike the reputation for rugby in Gloucester, Coney Hill were built on a very strong-running set of three-quarters rather than a massive pack. And, in the end, it was the quality of the opposition’s wingers that proved the decisive factor in Maidstone’s defeat.

Maidstone had their two strongest periods in the first twenty and last ten minutes of the game. Unfortunately, the pressure they exerted in their early forays into opposition territory could not be translated into points and Coney Hill were the first on the scoreboard with a penalty for offside after 17 minutes. Maidstone hit back within three minutes with a try from Nick Taylor, half way out, following a rolling maul after a lineout. Whitehead’s conversion put the Stones into a 7-3 lead and gave the home side, and their vocal supporters, much to think about.

Unfortunately, the forward domination could not be continued as, shortly thereafter, Taylor received a yellow card after a high tackle and spent ten minutes cooling his heels on the touchline. Coney Hill took full advantage, scoring twice in this period and, with both tries converted, put themselves into a 17-7 lead.

A penalty awarded to Maidstone on the 10-metre line, in front of the posts, would have restored some equilibrium to the half-time score but it drifted wide. The decisive decision from Maidstone’s perspective, and one that sealed the fate of this match, was a second yellow card for Nick Taylor in the last minute of the half for killing the ball in front of his posts.

Four minutes into the second half, a slack piece of defending after a penalty was awarded to Coney Hill on the Maidstone 10-metre line, allowed their right wing to take a quick tap and run through the static defence to score under the posts. A further try was scorned by the opposition, when the left wing dropped the ball in the process of scoring but another try was claimed after 15 minutes to take the score to 29-7 with the prospects of a heavy defeat looming.

With a seven man bench allowed in this competition, a number of substitutions were made at this point to freshen-up the Maidstone 7-man pack, which struggled manfully against a robust, but limited, set of opposition forwards. They were helped in this regard by yellow cards issued to the Coney Hill second row for pulling down at the lineout and one of the wingers for killing the ball in the 22.

With the reduced number of players on the field for much of the second half and Maidstone finding themselves in deficit, the game opened up significantly and, for the last ten minutes of the game, Maidstone once again began to penetrate the opposition line. New boy, Scott Mitchell, caught the eye in this period with some penetrative runs which he capped with a try which was matched by a typical Mark Ryan run at the death, striding in from 40-metres.

The final score of 29-17 reflected the relative strengths of the teams on the day but left a strong feeling that Maidstone could, and should, have done better.

Maidstone Team
Scott McIlroy; Tom Rogers (Davis); Simon Hollister (Jeffreys): Steve Matthews; Sam Johnson (Bacon); Alex Smith (Court); Nick Taylor; Nick Sargent: Dave Heads; Craig Whitehead: Nick Deissner (Mitchell): Jamie Smith (Stockford); Mark Ryan; Damien Houlihan: Martin Arnold