Maidstone IV 18
Lordswood II 40
Maidstone turned up feeling confident to turn over a spell of poor results, with some help from 2nd team players, and even 1st team player Sam Bailey, who had an excellent run at blindside flanker. We even had subs to spare, not that the opposition minded.
The pre-match talk was simple: play heads up rugby with quick ball. And at first this seemed to work, with Maidstone enjoying the most of possession and territory, which resulted in a Euan Caborn penalty after about 10 minutes. However, whether it was over-confidence or complacency, Maidstone seemed to lack the same ambition and drive, and conceded 2 soft tries as Lordswood gained momentum.
Despite this Lordswood found it hard to keep discipline, which gave Maidstone great field position, which resulted in a Sam Bailey try after a fantastic lineout by Josh McKenzie. The subsequent conversion was narrowly missed, but Maidstone looked confident.
After conceding another soft try before the break, the half time message was clear, that we needed quicker ball, higher intensity for the next 40 minutes and more self and collective belief. This hit home for a while at least, with some brave defence. But the inevitable occurred, with a succession of Lordswood tries including a fantastic solo effort from their fly half who had a near-faultless game. However there was a brief interruption, which resulted in another Caborn penalty after long spells of time in the Lordswood half, with great runs from Frank the Tank, Sam Bailey and Ben Lobos.
With seconds left on the clock, Maidstone reversed the kick off. A high, hanging kick from the boot of Caborn took Lordswood by surprise, not least their winger who let the ball fall into the grateful arms of Jon Broadly, who went in for a touchline try, though his diving skills need some work!!
It was fitting that in his last game for the season, skipper Caborn slotted the touchline conversion to give a final score of 41-18. Credit to Lordswood for capitalising well on Maidstone’s errors, but this was definitely a winnable game. With more dedication and belief, who knows how many of the breaks that Maidstone made would have resulted in 5 or 7 points instead of scrums. But onwards and upwards, with a trip to Old Gravesendians next week. Lets hope that we kick on from here and start getting some W’s.
EC
