Guildford 76                   Maidstone  7

This was clearly one or the darker days of Maidstone rugby! A 76 point tally from    unbeaten table-toppers Guildford knocked the stuffing out of the town side. The difference between the sides on the day was immense! Within 10 minutes there were 12 points on the board and in less than half an hour Guildford were 30 points to the good. At halftime the score was 38 nil!! Guildford are clearly a very well organised side, with no apparent weaknesses. Their young playmaker stand off Like Sayer caused all kind of problems with his quick changes of direction, allowing either his backs or his pack to continually break the Maidstone gain line. Tries were scored at will with 6 having been scored before the break. Maidstone, not helped by injuries and unavailability of several key players, to their credit never gave up they stuck to their task. With near parity in the scrums and line outs they were unable to put together any attacking moves before the hosts regained possession. It was when the ball was in open play that they had most difficulty .

The second half was almost a mirror image of the first with the same number of points being scored. Guildford continued to frustrate the visitors with some excellent flowing rugby played in the spirit the game should be played, fast, open, and clean!

The one bright spark was when Damien Houliham latched on to a stray pass in the Guildford centre and raced to the posts where Craig Whitehead added the extras to break the duck, Although not enough as Maidstone’s hearts had already been well broken by now. This will be a tough time for the team with much soul searching before a vital game at Beckenham on Saturday.

Footnote: Maidstone’s French full back Alex Malejec, on his debut for the first team, must have wondered about life back home on the tranquil island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean as he saw this score line rack up and up!!

He said afterwards  ‘It was a Nightmare’, Not bad English and fair assessment for the day!!

Scorers Maidstone

Damien Houlihan Try

Crag Whitehead conversion

Team

Maidstone Alex Malejac Tim Porter, Martin Arnold (C) (John Wilford), Gary Whitehead, Damien Houlihan, Glen Aukett, Craig Whitehead, Scott McIlroy, Tom Rogers, Chris Findlay (Rob Jeffries), Dan Cummings, Garrett Hines (Sam Johnson), Adam Webb, Nick Sargent, Ben Court

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