Mobbs-Smith: Time for Maidenhead to marry passion with pragmatism

Photo credit: Paul Morgan

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Head coach David Mobbs-Smith admits Maidenhead may have to curtail some of their early season ‘exuberance’ if they’re to start competing on a more even keel with some of the better sides in the Regional 1 South Central Division.

Maids have picked up five points from their four matches so far, with all those points coming at home in their thumping 47-15 win over Hammersmith & Fulham.

As thrilling as that victory was, and as encouraging as that victory was, they’ve failed to pick up a single point from their other three matches, despite being very much in the mix to do so in two of those.

Mobbs-Smith admits they were blown away by CS Stags in their opening day 67-0 defeat, but he believes a little more discipline from them would have seen them collect points from last week’s 26-14 loss at Bracknell and Saturday’s 22-33 home defeat to Camberley.

On Saturday, they also had a man advantage for more than an hour and still couldn’t really trouble their experienced visitors, which the coach admits is disappointing.

“We had some similar lessons last season,” said Mobbs-Smith.

“We kept being too adventurous and kept getting beaten.

“Post Christmas we learned those lessons. The pattern is probably like the past two years. We’re filled with optimism, we’re young and we feel we can conquer the world and then slowly we must become a bit more pragmatic.

“Not all the time but at certain times. The weather also forces us to be more pragmatic. You get a winter rugby mindset as you go away and play on muddier pitches. That might curtail some of exuberance a little.

“Camberley created an environment where we found it difficult to come back into the game and then you start to get more desperate. Having said that we still scored some good tries and hopefully we can take that forward into what is likely the biggest challenge this season, playing away to the top side in the league.”

They now face their toughest game of the season on paper - away to league leaders Jersey on Saturday - however, Mobbs-Smith credits this game last season as the one which gave his players the belief that they could compete and go on and secure survival. He’s hoping for a similar performance - and a better result given they lost the match 40-7- this time around.

Maids were also one of only a few sides to beat Jersey last season when they defeated them 46-45 in a thriller in Braywick Park in March.

“It’s a very tough venue to go to,” said Mobbs-Smith.

“They’re very strong at home. It’s going to be interesting to see how we perform against those more experienced players.

“We’ll stay overnight on Friday. It’s a special trip and it’s a lovely place to go to. It’s a team of ex professionals so it’s more than a normal event in my mind.

“You play in a lovely stadium and it’s more than a town team; they’re almost a national team. That side of things is enjoyable.

“But it was a tough game last season, and we performed well in that game. It looked like it was a difficult game, and we weren’t competitive in terms of the scoreboard, but how we played against them was good. That helped build us up for the rest of the season. It showed us that we could play in this league and compete.

“That game helped change our mindset. We also got bonus points away at Wimbledon and it just changed our whole concept of the game and where we are.

“We competed well on the pitch if not on the scoreboard. The players came away from Jersey last season knowing they’d performed. We didn’t perform on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can learn lessons. We need to find that solution and hopefully take away that little bit of extravagance that opens the door for people to take advantage of. The Camberley’s of this world do that.

“It’s an exciting trip for the club, quite a few fans are coming as well. It’s going to be a lovely club weekend and hopefully we perform on the pitch. There won’t be any fear element because the last time we played, we beat them which not many teams did last season.”