Maidstone 3 v Chichester 45 by Trevor Langley
London League 1 South
Away at Chichester, Saturday 3rd October, 2009, Kick Off –3.00pm
What was meant as a new beginning turned into a frustrating mess as scrum half debutant, Sean Walker, missed the start of this match, resulting in a late reshuffle to the three quarter line and the worst of all starts. But once the team found a measure of cohesion, they matched this powerful Chichester outfit, only to suffer a last twenty minute burn out, conceding five late tries.
In order to counteract the lack of penetration shown in the games, so far, a major restructuring of the back division had Kiwi Ryan Mills and coming in at fly half, with Aussie, Ben Cleary making his debut at outside centre. This was matched by a new back row, with Matt Iles at No 8 and Charlie Simpson on blind side.
But for a late injury, Matt Butterworth, another recent Kiwi recruit, would have played at full back. Duncan McClintock stepped up to fill this position while swine flu captured Gavin Milne and Sean Walker, another recent recruit, was promoted to scrum half.
With so many changes, there was an understandable apprehension in the camp at kick off. Maidstone allowed Chichester to quickly get into their stride, establishing themselves in the Maidstone half from kick off. The first try, on five minutes, had an element of luck in it, in that the scorer, No 8 Johnson, was in front of the kicker when scrum half, Sulley chipped through. But the second, by captain, Kasujja, on 20 minutes was conceded after a build up of pressure by the home side that Maidstone ultimately could not deny.
But as the disparate parts of the Maidstone side began to get better acquainted, so the play moved to the Chichester half, prompted by some raking kicks from Mills, and with some crunching tackles upsetting the opposition, Maidstone began to look an effective unit. As a result, Chichester began to concede penalties, and Horne got points on the board, just before the interval.
While the scrum was under pressure and the line out showed a certain vulnerability, when Maidstone got the ball they caused concerns for the home team and stretched the defence on a number of occasions. A half time 12-3 deficit looked manageable, and with Walker coming on at scrum half and Mills moving out to fly half, a measure of expectation returned.
And for 30 minutes, this expectation was maintained as the defence held against a big, powerful pack. Even with the yellow carding of hooker, Pankhurst, reducing Maidstone to fourteen players, Chichester could not find a way through.
But once the dyke was breached, by a forward drive over the line, to get the scoreboard moving again, Maidstone found it difficult to resist the juggernaut.
Skipper Kasujja, having moved from centre to the No 8 slot, picked up off the back of a 5-mtere scrum to drive over eight minutes later and a charged down kick gifted a further score, this time to fly half, Smallman, in the corner. With replacement kicker Adams, adding conversions from all parts of the field, the score in the last five minutes quickly mounted as three more tries were added against a tiring Maidstone defence.
What started as a new beginning ended with a heavy 45-3 defeat, although this did not reflect the run of play. There is still much work to do to get the team functioning effectively but only by playing as a unit will Maidstone get back to winning ways.
Team
John O’Brien; Josh Pankhurst (Martin Maytum 57 mins); Rob Jeffrey: Steve Matthews; Andy Bacon (Richard Coles 70 mins): Charlie Simpson; Jack Lamb; Matt Iles: Ryan Mills; Peter Horne: Tom Castle (Sean Walker 40 mins); Neil Graves; Ben Cleary; Damien Houlihan: Duncan McClintock
