Mixed emotions: Maids bounce back in style but lose Ropeti to long-term injury

Maidenhead’s impressive 47-15 win over Hammersmith & Fulham on Saturday came at a cost, with head coach David Mobbs-Smith saying new signing Alex Ropeti was likely to miss the rest of the season with a bad shoulder injury.

Maids racked up eight tries against their visitors from the capital in a rousing response to last weekend’s 67-0 defeat at CS Stags.

However, they were forced to move players around in the second half and put some round pegs in square holes as they looked to withstand a second half fightback from Hammersmith and close the game out for a couple win.

New centre Ropeti was one of the Maids players who scored on Saturday, with Tom Marland and Will Hibberdine also going over the whitewash, however, the day belonged to Luke Hayward, who scored a hat-trick on his home debut this season having moved up from the Colts’ team this summer.

Mobbs-Smith was delighted with Saturday’s display, but there was a ‘price to pay’.

“We had quite a lot of injuries, and we had to move things around,” said Mobbs.

“We had Greg Smith playing at nine, we lost our fullback and had to move Shawn Ingle to centre.

“We were the ones under pressure even though we had the lead.

“We’ve lost Alex Ropeti, who has just joined us. He was a key signing for us at centre. It’s a long-term injury. He could be out for over a year. It’s a real shame because he’s only just joined us and started playing for us. Short term is Alex French; he’s out for a little while.

“We didn’t get out of this match without playing a price.

“Alex Turton won’t be playing this season. We’ve lost some key players, but having said that. Luke Hayward has just come up from our colts’ team. A lovely player on the wing, he scored a hat-trick.

“Will Hibberdine, a new player who has joined us. Tom Marland, who is a returning Uni boy. Alex Ropeti scored one as well. He’s injured his shoulder. He’ll be out for a long time.”

The result and performance were a terrific response to Maids’ deflating curtain-raiser at CS Stags, where Mobbs-Smith admits his side were second best from first to last whistle.

The head coach didn’t feel the result at CS Stags was unexpected, but the severity of it surprised, as well as Maids’ inability to put any points on the scoreboard.

“If you remember last season, they made a charge up the league table and played really well as the season went on,” he said,

“They just seemed to boss us the whole game, and it ran away from us a bit at the end. They were 26-0 up at half-time and we weren’t out of the game at that stage, but we were not much longer into the second half. Sometimes that happens away from home. We just couldn’t get any momentum.

“We just kept making mistakes and they had huge joy out of our mistakes. We’d get up field, do something good, make a mistake and they’d break up field and score. The shock wasn’t necessarily the defeat; it was more the margin of the defeat. There was no point in the game where it looked like we’d win.

“But after half an hour it was only 12-0 so it was tight, but then the floodgates opened in the second half, and we just couldn’t keep up with them. It was a poor performance on the road, one of the worst we’ve had for a long time, but the beauty of it is how well the club responded and bounced back.

“It takes a whole squad to bounce back, not just the guys who were on the field, it takes everybody at the club. Even the guys winning know, that’s hurt them as well. We play as a whole squad. Not the 1sts and the 2nds. A big defeat impacts everybody and a win impacts everybody. So, to get two wins for the 1sts and 2nds was huge after what happened the weekend before.”

Maids now travel to derby rivals Bracknell on Saturday, having played out an entertaining draw at their place last season, and then defeated them by one point with a late score at Braywick Park in the return match.

“Every time we play each other there’s not much in it,” he said.

“Last time when we played there, they scored right at the end to draw the game. And we scored right at the end of the match at Braywick to win the game at our place. It’s that tight.

“We’ve had a decent amount of success at Bracknell away over the years, can we do the same on Saturday, it will be tough, but last year we played each other for 160 minutes and there was one point between us.”