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Portsmouth 48 Maidstone 11 |
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Maidstone went to Portsmouth for the last league match of the season hoping to cause another upset at the top of the table, following their demolishing of Guildford. Portsmouth needed to win this match to guarantee promotion to London 1.In the end they did it in style, but they had to work hard for it.The home side were fired up for game and were quickly on the score sheet after taking a ball against the head and the hooker Pearse slipping through too many tackles. Maidstone fought back and got within scoring distance on 2 occasions with fine control in the forwards, but the were unable to finish it off. Portsmouth were continuing to concede penalties at will and hand the initiative back to the visitors. Craig Whitehead slotted 2 of them to keep in touch. However when Portsmouth’s backs got going they punched holes in the Maidstone’s defence and the flying winger Ofuasia was unstoppable in adding another try. A further crucial ‘soft’score just before half time after a scrum against the head near the line put them ahead 17-6 at the break.
A further try just after half time was then cancelled out by Martin Arnold playing his first match for 6 weeks. With a reshuffled pack Maidstone were now creating more opportunities and particularly shoving the bigger Portsmouth pack backwards on several occasions. This got them worried and silenced the very large partisan crowd as they continued to give away penalties. Was this going to be a fourth successive season when they just missed out? When Martin Arnold almost got an interception pass with the line in sight the scores would now have been very close !!
Maidstone then had another opportunity near the Portsmouth line but again could get the extra yards. The match now had only 12 minutes left and a final push was needed to secure promotion. This they did scoring 4 tries to break Maidstone’s hearts to run out worthy winners and now contemplate life in the higher reaches of London Rugby .This match was notable for the first team debut of under 18 centre Craig Webb. He showed he has class and finesse and is a very good prospect for the future.
Maidstone can look back on the season with mixed emotions as their final table position could have been better had they beaten at least 4 sides where they had the upper hand and didn’t deliver the ‘coup de grace’!
Team: Wilford, Ryan, Craig Webb, Martin Arnold (capt), Malejac(Dyke) Aukett, Craig Whitehead Mcilroy, Rogers, Hollister, Johnson, Cummings (Obrien), Nick Sargent Matthews, Anning |