Maidstone 5 v Chichester 30 by Trevor Langley
London League 1 South
Home at The Mote, Saturday 23rd January, 2009, Kick Off –2:15pm
Maidstone gave a fractured performance in this 30-5 loss to south-coast visitors, Chichester. Injuries were partly to blame, with all three replacements being used within five minutes of half-time, but a disproportionately high, first half, penalty count and perhaps, more importantly, a sluggish start, allowed the visitors to stamp an early mark on the game.
Following the fighting performance against Wimbledon, the previous week, it was the latter that was most disappointing.
With last week’s debutant, Ian Overton, laid low by a virus, Neil Graves moved back into the centre, to partner Craig Webb, with Duncan McClintock promoted to full back. The pack had only one change, with Nick East taking over at hooker from Josh Pankhurst.
Disappointingly, the early pressure all came from Chichester, and after missing an early penalty attempt from 40 metres, full back Adams converted his second attempt on seven minutes after Maidstone were caught in possession on their own 22. An opportunity for Maidstone to level the score, five minutes later, was undone when Molloy slipped in his kicking stride.
Chichester demonstrated their strength in the back row, with consecutive moves started by No 8, Kasujji, going blind in the second to feed centre Upton to score in the corner. An excellent conversion by Adams extended the visitors lead to ten points with a quarter of the match gone. This was extended, ten minutes later, when a penalty on half way, allowed Chichester to mount a line out, deep in Maidstone’s 22, and when the initial thrust of fly half Smallman was parried, the ball was recycled back to blind side flanker, Johnson to score.
This try was sandwiched by two Maidstone injuries resulting in replacements in both cases. Firstly, full back McClintock left the field with a badly dislocated finger to be followed by Steve Matthews with a shoulder injury. Remarkably, the scrum lost none of its resilience, with replacement Jack Lamb providing extra urgency in open play, to retain parity with a big, uncompromising visitor pack.
While Chichester continued to demonstrate their skills outside, Maidstone’s defence remained firm until a penalty against Molloy, for an illegal tackle that also promoted a yellow card for the Maidstone scrum half, allowed the visitors to increase the deficit to eighteen points, with five minutes of the half remaining.
A knee injury to blind side, Lee Thomson, immediately after the restart, compounded Maidstone’s problems, requiring another shuffle in the pack to accommodate final replacement, Rob Jeffrey. But rather than initiate a decline, Maidstone rose to the challenge and competed hard.
With twenty minutes gone, a penalty to Maidstone was driven to the Chichester 22 by a Molloy kick. With Simpson comfortably winning the line out, the ball was quickly spun to Neil Graves whose diagonal run through the centre allowed him to touch down in the opposite corner to cut the deficit to 18-5.
While Molloy’s conversion attempt fell fractionally short, it was his next play that caused problems. From the restart, he slightly delayed his kick and the charge down was quickly recovered by Chichester and fed to second row O’Callaghan to charge over half way out. Adams missed the conversion, but more importantly, Maidstone’s revival was nipped in the bud.
A yellow card to O’Callaghan for running over a loose scrum, gave Maidstone a numerical advantage on the half hour but this was negated, shortly thereafter, when Molloy had to leave the field with a blood injury that prevented him returning. Chichester took full advantage of their good fortune and, on the stroke of full time, added a further try through flanker Polhill, by the posts, to allow Adams an easy conversion to round out the scoring.
In the end, Chichester deserved their victory as they showed a greater sharpness in the loose, winning the 50-50 balls, which, allied to the ability to penetrate with sharp runners outside, gave them the key advantage. But Maidstone were not outgunned or outclassed. If they can protect the ball better and improve their cohesion in the loose, more wins could result.
Team
John O’Brien; Nick East; Martin Maytum: Charlie Simpson; Steve Matthews (Jack Lamb 35 mins): Lee Thomson (Rob Jeffrey 43 mins); Nick Sargent; Matt Iles: Peter Horne; Mike Molloy: Lewis Fawcett; Neil Graves; Craig Webb; Mark Ryan: Duncan McClintock (Tim Wetjen 25 mins):
