Match Report
Aylesford 3 by Trevor Langley
Maidstone 7
London League 1 South
Away at Aylesford, Saturday 24th October, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm
When two teams, without a win between them, meet, it is inevitable that the internal tensions, built by the expectation of victory, generate a heightened, fever-pitch feeling within the players. As a consequence, they don’t relax, they snatch at opportunities and the quality of the rugby produced is often poor.
Such was the case in this local derby. When, in the past, these two clubs have met, the games have been full-blooded affairs, with the crowd highly vociferous. This encounter came alight only in the last quarter and the palpable tension on the touchline generated a funereal atmosphere until first Aylesford managed a score and, at the last, when Maidstone replied.
Maidstone have played far better than this, on a number of occasions, this season but to snatch a 7-3 victory at the death will have given them the belief that they can win, a word that was disappearing from their lexicon.
After last week’s encouraging performance, Maidstone made an enforced change in the front row, with Rob Jeffrey moving to hooker, in place of the unavailable Ed Pritchard, and Dan Salvage, a new recruit with Army U.23 honours, coming in at tight head prop. Ben Court came back at No 8, with Matt Iles dropping to the bench, and Gareth Hill replacing Duncan McClintock at full back.
Playing with a strong but intermittent breeze at their backs, Maidstone spent practically all the first half camped in the Aylesford half. Fly half, Ryan Mills, using the wind cleverly, putting in some fine raking kicks to the right hand corner but although Maidstone’s line out worked well and the backs had ample ball, none of them had sufficient sang-froid to deliver the killer blow.
Even skipper, Matthews, appeared to leave his brain at home, instructing a kick to touch from a penalty on the 22, rather than go for goal and get the scoreboard moving. With two further penalty opportunities scorned, it seemed that only tries would be good enough, but Aylesford were fired up, as well, and defended like demons.
A scoreless first half appeared to give the advantage to Aylesford, as they would have the elements with them in the second half, but the wind eased somewhat and the sun made an appearance, taking away some of the wetness. But it was Maidstone that made the first incisive break, within minutes of the restart, moving the ball left and then right to release Peter Horne through the centre, only for him to be denied yards short of the Aylesford line.
A second chance came, and went, within minutes, when Houlihan failed to gather a routine pass, with the line at his mercy.
Aylesford began to draw comfort from the visitor’s inability to finish them off and, on the half hour, were awarded a penalty, 35 metres out, which fly half, Jed Friday, comfortably converted to put them in the lead. Maidstone’s pack was looking increasingly uncomfortable in the tight and Aylesford used this advantage to increase the pressure.
Maidstone continued to defend admirably and had to withstand a number of rolling mauls, holding the ball up, on one occasion, over the line. But with time running out, and four minutes of injury time played, Maidstone finally broke through the Aylesford defence. From an Aylesford scrum on the Maidstone 22, the ball popped out and was quickly gathered by Molloy who fed Mills to break the gain line and who, in turn, fed Neil Graves, bursting through the centre.
With a swerving run past the last defender, he touched down under the posts to make Molloy’s conversion a formality. This was a late, late victory but, on the balance of play, was deserved and should give the team the confidence to look at their upcoming games in a more positive light.
Team
John O’Brien; Rob Jeffrey; Dan Salvage: Steve Matthews; Andy Bacon: Sean Walker; Jack Lamb (Matt Iles 60 mins); Ben Court: Mike Molloy; Ryan Mills; Neil Graves; Peter Horne; Ben Cleary; Damien Houlihan : Gareth Hill
