Match Report
Chobham 23
Maidstone 5
London League 1 South By Trevor Langley
Away at Chobham, Saturday 30th January, 2010, Kick Off –2.15pm
The equivalent fixture last season saw a record loss for Maidstone, so there was much room for improvement on this occasion. From the perspective of the scoreline, a 59-5 defeat filled this criterion, but, in the final analysis, this was a poor team performance, which allowed Chobham to dictate the play until the last quarter of the match.
The fact that Maidstone could find energy and cohesion in this final period points to lack of confidence rather than lack of fitness, but until greater confidence is imbued into the side, getting back to winning ways will be difficult.
Another factor that influenced the match was the number of changes due to injuries incurred in last week’s game. Steve Matthews, Duncan McClintock, Lee Thomson and Mike Molloy all remained in the treatment room, to which was added the unavailable Craig Webb. But with Andy Bacon back in the second row and Jack Lamb resuming at open side flanker, the pack more than held its own for most of the match.
The back line replacements, with Tim Wetjen stepping up to the fly half position for his starting debut, did not, on paper, weaken the team. But once again, cohesion and confidence, the two factors that ultimately determine the effectiveness of a side, had to be built from scratch.
Chobham started the game at high pace and immediately put Maidstone under pressure when successive clearing kicks were charged down. While both of these opportunities for the home side were missed, it did not take long for Chobham to get on the scoreboard, when the Maidstone back line was caught offside after five minutes. A second, converted, penalty on the quarter-hour, for the same reason, resulted in a stern lecture from the referee and a third, shortly thereafter, saw Ian Overton receive a yellow card.
Quick thinking from the Chobham scrum half saw him take a quick tap from the penalty and feed the ball right for centre Lea to touch down, out wide. A good conversion from fly half Smith, to add to his previous penalties, saw the score move to 13-0 with a quarter of the match gone.
Maidstone were finding it difficult to contain the quick passing game Chobham were playing and were pegged in their own half for long periods. When they did manage to find some momentum, Chobham were quick to counter and, after one such Maidstone foray into the Chobham half, the home side regained the ball and quickly spun it to the open side to release centre Lea once more, who found his way past three Maidstone defenders to score in the corner.
In his attempts to prevent this try, Nick East incurred a mouth injury and had to be replaced by Sam Bailey.
With half-time approaching, a further try to Chobham, when prop, Burke, burst through a tackle in the centre to set up Walsh to score by the posts, saw the game effectively end as a contest. This was confirmed when Horne missed an easy penalty chance in the dying seconds of the half.
Seven second half tries confirmed the dominance of the Chobham side as they maintained their high pace game and continually probed for space. But as the last quarter of the game progressed, Maidstone showed what might have been as wings Fawcett and Ryan combined to probe the left wing on a number of occasions. But it was centre, Ian Overton that eventually got Maidstone on the board with a fine individual try. The move started on the half way line, following a scrum, allowing Overton to cut inside his opposite number and straightening to confound the defence, before touching down.
Since the near miss at Wimbledon, two weeks ago, Maidstone has failed to build its case for parity with other sides in the league. Injuries have played a part in this regression but without improved team work, the gap will remain.
Team
John O’Brien; Nick East (36 mins); Luke Debnam (Martin Maytum 47 mins): Charlie Simpson; Andy Bacon: Nick Sargent; Jack Lamb; Matt Iles: Peter Horne; Tim Wetjen: Lewis Fawcett; Ian Overton; Neil Graves (Tom Harvey 70 mins); Mark Ryan: Gareth Hill:
