Maidenhead overpowered by leaders Jersey despite strong first-half performance

Will Hibberdene offloads the ball for Greg Smith to score Maids’ second try. Photo: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead 12, Jersey 40

Maidenhead were eventually overwhelmed by the Regional 1 South Central Division leaders Jersey at Braywick Park on Saturday.

David Mobbs-Smith’s side managed to stay with the division’s runaway leaders for most of the first half, but their power and experience told in the second half as the hosts went down to a 40-12 defeat.

Maids took the game to the leaders in the early stages at Braywick, forcing them back inside their own 22. They took the lead inside five minutes as well, with Chris Gill eventually bundling his way over close to the posts, after the visitors had held up several attempts by Maids to get the ball down over the line.

The extras were slotted by Greg Smith and Maidenhead had a 7-0 lead to defend. This they did diligently until the 25th minute when Jersey built pressure close to the Maids’ try line and a good cut back and finish from Whitson saw the visitors draw level with a converted try.

Maids were level until after the half-hour mark, but Jersey were starting to pick a few holes in their defences. A looping pass out wide in the 32nd minute was collected by Jersey’s number 13, Stock who cut back inside again and held off a few challenges before reaching for the line to score. Once again, the conversion was good to put the visitors 14-7 to the good.

But Maids were far from a spent force in the first half, and they managed to force Jersey onto the back foot once more. From a scrum on their visitors’ 22, they worked the ball out to the left and Will Hibberdene managed to offload a pass to Smith – who came into the backline from full-back – to race through and score in the corner. The conversion was missed, but Maids were right back in contention at 12-14 at the break.

However, from the opening moments of the second half, Jersey showed why they’re top of the table and chasing down the title with a faultless record so far. They forced their way over on the far-right side from a ruck in 42nd minute, McFarlane getting the ball down.

Penberthy was the orchestrator of Jersey’s fourth try. Spotting a two-on-one in the far corner he lofted a cross-field kick which was caught by Boarer and touched down to make 26-12 with the conversion.

A quick lineout gave Jersey the space to go for another clever cross-field kick in the 70th minute, and again Boarer was the man to profit, collecting the ball for another simple try.

A final try in added on time gave the scoreline a much harsher complexion than Maids possibly deserved. Winning the ball from a lineout on the left, MacFarlane grabbed his second try of the game as he barged his way over at the back of a ruck to make the final score 40-12 with the conversion.

The result leaves Maids still ninth in the table on 23 points after Wimbledon and Camberley lost their respective matches on Saturday without collecting a losing bonus point. Wimbledon were beaten 40-17 away at Farnham while Camberley lost 52-17 away at Old Alleynians to leave all three sides on 23 points ahead of bottom of the table Hammersmith & Fulham on 15 points.

With Worthing beating London Scottish Lions 45-26 on Saturday to move onto 40 points, it now seems all but certain that Maids, Wimbledon, Camberley and Hammersmith & Fulham will make up the bottom four sides this season. Two of them will be relegated automatically, while the teams in ninth and 10th will face off against each other in a relegation play-off, with the losers to then take on a team hoping for promotion from the level below.

Maids next face a crucial trip to Wimbledon on January 31. Victory would strengthen their hopes of finishing outside of the bottom two while defeat would leave them in grave danger of automatic relegation.