Maidenhead RFC banking on form at Braywick Park to bounce back against Worthing

Maidenhead RFC have undoubtedly played their best rugby at Braywick Park this season, and head coach David Mobbs-Smith and his players will be hoping that proves the case once again when Worthing visit them on Saturday.

Maids have had a weekend off to digest the fallout from their heavy 50-7 loss away to London Lions on October 25, a result that must have come as a real punch in the gut after their impressive if narrow home win over Wimbledon the previous week.

Winning at home but losing away from Braywick was a theme which ran throughout last season, and a similar discourse appears to be at play during this campaign, with Mobbs-Smith’s young, talented - but inexperienced and injury-hit - squad falling to defeats at CS Stags, Bracknell, Jersey and now London Lions.

Their mauling by the Lions will not have come as a complete surprise, given their indifferent away performances this season. The Lions have been promoted to the Regional 1 South Central Division this season but are clearly well equipped to compete at this level, particularly at their Kings School home that they share with CS Stags.

In two trips to the ground this season, Maids have conceded 117 points and scored just seven points. They will not wish to return any time soon and may not get the chance to if their form in the league doesn’t take a turn for the better in the coming weeks.

Maids have had two very strong results at home this season, defeating second bottom Hammersmith & Fulham 47-15 and bottom of the table Wimbledon 41-32. But their away defeats and a narrow home loss to Camberley has left them 10th in the table, and that’s exactly where they should be based on the basic statistics of the season.

They’ve scored fewer points than all but the two sides beneath them (143) and have now conceded more points than any other side in the division (283). They will have to find a way of pulling those two numbers closer together in the remaining months of the season if they’re to avoid relegation - or play-off matches against relegation.

They will hope to take a step towards doing that on Saturday, when mid-table Worthing visit Braywick. Worthing have won four and lost three of their matches so far but sit seventh in the table - only 11 points above Maids. Were the hosts to win this weekend and claim a bonus point in the process they’d move to within six points of their visitors.

Worthing’s results have been up and down in recent weeks, but they have claimed some hugely impressive results. Their 54-31 success over Camberley at home will have raised eyebrows and they overcame Farnham 33-14 in their last outing a couple of weeks ago. However, their four victories have so far come at home, and they’ve lost all their matches on their travels, so there should be hope that Maidenhead will cause them some problems on their more familiar 3G surface.

After Worthing, Maids face a trip to Farnham and then go up against two of this season’s big hitters away to second placed Tunbridge Wells and home to third placed Old Alleynians.

For the first time this season, and indeed in several seasons, Windsor and Marlow will face off against each other for league points in Regional 2 Thames and local bragging rights.

It’s been a tough start to the campaign for Andy Symons’ Windsor side, who’ll at least have home advantage at Home Park for this one.

The Royalists have managed just one win from their seven matches so far - a 26-17 victory away to the London Wild Geese.

However, the newly promoted side have emphatically not been able to build on that impressive win, losing 35-84 at home to Brunel University before going down to a 50-17 loss at Belsize Park. The mitigating factor in both of those losses is that Windsor were up against the best two sides in the division. Brunel top the division with a 100 per cent record so far.

Marlow look the stronger side on paper after winning three of their opening seven matches. Their form has also been mixed of late, with the side defeating Oxford Harlequins 53-22 and Grasshoppers 36-19 before suffering back-t0-back defeats against Old Priorians (12-32) at home and Teddington (55-28) away.

However, they bounced back from those difficult results to fifth placed Aylesbury 29-15 at Riverwoods. The hosts pulled away from their visitors in the second half after going in drawing 10-10 at the interval.