Match Report

Maidstone 15 v Chobham 31         by Trevor Langley

London League 2 South

Home at The Mote, Saturday 14th March, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm

After the early season, 100 point, humiliation by the visitors, Chobham, any result might have been considered an improvement, but this 15-31 loss represented a poor outcome after the recent improving form shown by Maidstone. Further pre-match optimism was engendered by Chobham’s recent own poor form, not having won in the league since before the New Year, due to a run of debilitating injuries.

But injuries have also begun to sap at Maidstone’s strengths, with Jack Lamb missing this week, along with Craig Whitehead, two of the more influential contributors to open play. Sam McPherson came in to the scrum-half berth and Matt Iles moved to open side to fill the gaps, with Steve Matthews retaining his place at blindside and Chris Wallis partnering Andy Bacon in the second row.

This is the third position for Matt Iles in as many weeks, added to which, he suffered a virus during the week, and this time the experiment was not successful. It was only when Luke Day came on as a replacement was sufficient pressure put on the Chobham stand-off half to cause them defensive problems.

After an initial attacking flurry by Maidstone, Chobham quickly began to make inroads into Maidstone territory and were on the scoreboard after five minutes. A poor kick out of defence by Maidstone set up full back, Logan, to run back strongly and, without effective first-time tackling, his pass inside was enough to allow prop, Heslop, to dive over. Mahood added the conversion.

Maidstone battled back into the game and one good move saw a cross field chip by hooker Sam Rodgers fielded by winger Gareth Hill, who attacked the line, only for his own kick to bounce to the advantage of the defence. But on the half hour, Maidstone finally struck back with Ben Court picking up off the base of a scrum to force his way over from five metres, to cut the deficit to two points.

Chobham immediately came back into the game. A penalty took the visitors deep into Maidstone’s 22, where their subsequent catch and drive was held up over the line. Maidstone should have cleared their lines when they won the subsequent scrum but this time, Court was the villain of the piece, losing the ball after electing to run rather than help clear his lines. In the ensuing maul, Chobham stole the ball and went over the line, with Mahood again adding the points, extending the lead to 14-5.

Chobham’s pack demonstrated their superiority in the loose when adding a further unconverted try just before half time. This time, flanker Glossop gained the hard yards, running through a number of half-hearted tackles.

A quick reply at the opening of the second half was the tonic Maidstone were seeking but it was the visitors who found the potion that effectively secured their win, when stand-off, Brown, chipped delicately into Maidstone 22, which the Stones put into touch. Another clean catch and drive was enough to get Chobham the try which Brown converted to establish a 26-5 lead after five minutes.

A penalty by Searles on 20 minutes, cut the deficit but a further try, this time by second row Berrigan, sealed Maidstone’s fate and a second try by Ben Court on 35 minutes, converted by Searles, added a respectability the scoreline barely deserved.

After significant progress in the second half of the season, Maidstone took a step back with their performance in this game. With some further hard encounters in prospect, they will have to cut the errors and re-establish the cohesion that has been emerging in recent weeks, but was sadly missing in this performance, if they are to compete.

Team

Sam Bailey; Sam Rogers; Mark Thurgood (Jim Walker 60 mins): Andy Bacon; Chris Wallis; Steve Matthews: Matt Iles  (Luke Day 65 mins); Ben Court: Sam McPherson; Tommy King: Gareth Hill; Neil Graves (James Ferris 55 mins); James Sullivan: Tom Searles