Bonus-point drought leaves Maidenhead in dangerous territory in Regional 1 South Central

Photo credit: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead are going to have to find some form away from Braywick Park over the second half of the season if they’re to haul themselves out of the bottom four this season.

Saturday’s 38-22 loss at Farnham saw David Mobbs-Smith’s side fall to 10th in the table, now eight points adrift of automatic safety in the Regional 1 South Central this season.

But it’s the side’s away form that will be causing their head coach headaches as he looks ahead to another very tough looking match at second placed Tunbridge Wells on Saturday.

Five defeats from five away from Braywick Park - without a losing bonus point being earned - doesn’t bode particularly well for Maidenhead’s survival prospects, especially when their closest rivals have all managed to pick up more bonus points from their defeats.

They were relatively competitive on Saturday and came close to getting the four tries needed for a point, but they fell short in a game that Mobbs-Smith admits Farnham controlled for the most part.

Maids have 15 points from nine matches so far, with all of those coming from three bonus point home wins over Hammersmith & Fulham, Wimbledon and Worthing.

Away from home they haven’t managed to cause their opponents as many problems. CS Stags, Jersey and London Scottish Lions all swept them aside with little trouble, while Bracknell and Farnham also got the better of them in closer, more competitive clashes.

“It looks like a battle between the bottom four to not be in the bottom two,” said Mobbs-Smith. “And then if you’re good enough at doing that. you might get closer to the next four teams, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

“The CS Stags are fifth currently, but they have nearly double the points we have. So, at the moment, it’s Camberley, ourselves, Wimbledon and Hammersmith and Fulham who are in a real fight to stay out of those bottom two places.

“The booby prize is the bottom two. The lead up to Christmas might cause some turmoil in what looks like the status quo.

“Right now, we have a top four, a middle four and a bottom four, that’s how the league stands right now. That might be more fluid come the last match in December.”

He added: “Ninth and 10th would play each other in the play off at the bottom, not someone from another division. And the loser would then play a promotion chasing side from the league below.

“We don’t know who that would be and we don’t know who would be in the bottom four yet, but that’s the scenario facing the four teams at the bottom. We’ve just started to drift away from the eighth-place safety position.

“It certainly makes the season more exciting than the cup competition did. It’s the same for the top teams who are fighting to get a promotion play-off place.

“Two and three will play each other and they’ll then face the team from the league above.”

Maids now face a crucial run of fixtures in the run up to the Christmas break and none of them look particularly easy. Second placed Tunbridge Wells look a daunting prospect for Mobbs-Smith’s men on Saturday, while Old Alleynians should put their good home form to the test on Saturday week (December 6). They then face a ‘must win’ game at Hammersmith & Fulham on December 13 before rounding off 2025 with a derby match at home to Bracknell on December 20.

“It’s a wet ground and they’re (Tunbridge Wells) usually very good in the wet,” said the head coach.

“We have won there before in my time here. It’s not unheard of, but it’s a tough place to go and win at.

“Last season, they finished in ninth or 10th position and here they are challenging Jersey for that top place. It’s a tough game away, it won’t be easy at all.

“Our poor starts haven’t helped away from home.

“We’ve been very Jekyll and Hyde this season. We’re a completely different force at home to how we’ve been away. Our biggest problem is that we’re not picking up bonus points.

“The two teams below us (Wimbledon and Hammersmith) have twice as many bonus points as us and the team above us has three times as many. It’s very worrying that we’re not getting our four tries, irrespective of the result. That must change when we lose. The games we lose we must be picking up bonus points.

“Sometimes, it’s because of availability problems. Last week we had a strong side away, this weekend it won’t be the case. There are a few people missing so some of the younger guys will play. That’s how it works out. Some of that is to do with work. They can only leave work at 1pm to get to our ground but they’re unable to make it to get to somewhere like Tunbridge Wells.”

“He added: “Old Alleynians are flying high as it stands. We’re then away to Hammersmith and home to Bracknell so we’ve got to find a way of picking up some wins and bonus points from this run of matches.

“That takes us just past the halfway mark and if we do pick up a win or two, we’d then have to match our results in the second half of the season to keep ourselves out of the bottom two.”