Match Report
Maidstone 13 by Trevor Langley
Beckenham 21
London League 1 South
Home at The Mote, Saturday 31st October, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm
Beckenham were the visitors to The Mote on an initially dank and foggy afternoon. And while the sun eventually made an appearance, there was further late gloom, after this 13-21 loss. Maidstone’s last-gasp victory at Aylesford the previous week, demonstrated a lot of fighting spirit, with building team cohesion, and expectations were for this to continue. The spirit was there in abundance but ultimately this eight point loss was down the failure to complete the simple rugby skills effectively.
With Rob Jeffrey unavailable, Nick East stepped up from the Mustangs to fill the hooker’s berth while Lewis Fawcett came in on the wing for the injured Damien Houlihan. Maidstone started the game with a spring in their step and an early Ryan Mills break gave early warning to Beckenham where Maidstone’s strength lay. Equally, in the opening exchanges, it became clear that the home side pack was struggling, when they were pushed off the ball in the first scrum.
A resultant penalty on the 40 metre line saw Beckenham move ahead on the quarter hour, from the boot of fly half Forrest, and prop, John O’Brien, immediately signalled he was in some distress, requiring his replacement by Luke Debnam. While this corrected the scrimmaging problem somewhat, Maidstone continued to struggle for parity in the tight, all afternoon.
Maidstone quickly hit back when, from a Beckenham scrum in their own 22, the relieving kick was charged down and the ball was fed to Andy Bacon to cross half way out. With Mike Molloy adding the conversion, Maidstone moved ahead, 7-3.
An exchange of penalties allowed Maidstone to maintain their four point lead until the 35 minute mark when, from a scrum on their own ten metre line, Beckenham swept the ball wide to centre Isaac, whose pass back inside found winger Jones with a clear path to the posts. Forrest’s inexplicable miss of the conversion, from in front, gave some comfort to Maidstone but Beckenham had inched back in front, 11-10.
From the restart, Maidstone put pressure on the visitor’s defence and, after an initial knock on, the visitors conceded two quick penalties. From the second, Molloy slotted his second of the afternoon, to restore the Maidstone lead. Further Maidstone pressure, just before half time, went unrewarded, confounded by good Beckenham defence, but the growing confidence of the Maidstone back line was clear for all to see.
Maidstone continued their positive approach at the start of the second half and a penalty attempt by Molloy, from 35 metres out, drifted wide while a second, shortly thereafter, this time hit the upright and bounced out. Having failed to make position count, Beckenham punished the home side with a well constructed try after ten minutes, with fly half Forrest setting up his left wing to score. This time, Forrest made no mistake with the conversion, to ease the visitors into an 18-13 lead.
With Ryan Mills taking a knock, Tommy King, back himself from injury, replaced him at fly half, on the quarter hour. Any impact this change of styles might have made was immediately negated when centre, Cleary, was yellow carded for holding back his opposite number in a Beckenham attack in the Maidstone 22. While a penalty try award was not forthcoming, the resultant penalty was converted by full back, Perry, to stretch the Beckenham lead to 21-13.
Maidstone defence stood up well to a period of Beckenham pressure and as the game drew to a close, it was Maidstone that gained the ascendancy once more. A typical bullocking run by Tommy King, from the half way line, raised expectation of another Maidstone try but his final pass, to the supporting Peter Horne, was not good enough and the chance was spilled.
There was little between these sides for much of this game but the inability of Maidstone to perform the basics well, finally proved their undoing.
Team
John O’Brien (Luke Debnam 16 mins); Nick East; Dan Salvage: Steve Matthews; Andy Bacon: Sean Walker; Jack Lamb (Matt Iles 55 mins); Ben Court: Mike Molloy; Ryan Mills (Tommy King 55 mins); Neil Graves; Peter Horne; Ben Cleary; Lewis Fawcett : Gareth Hill
