Sat 2 Dec 2023
Maldon welcomed Romford on a bitterly cold winter’s day, with a firm ground & grey skies. A pitch inspection prior to the game was needed as the frost was threatening, but the decision was made to go ahead after a few kettles full of boiling water were poured over the pitch. The crowd were pleased, but hats, gloves, scarves & coffee cups were the order of the day.
As Maldon are near the bottom of the table victory today & next week were targets pre-match, to enable Maldon to move up the table & out of the relegation zone at the halfway mark.
As usual, there were some personnel changes due to injury & unavailability, but Maldon were confident that they had a team to be successful. Vice-captain George Alden-Smith was back in the team after attending tackle school & Olly Lyons moved from the pack into the backs, where it was going to be colder.
Maldon received kick off & started in top gear. Strong carries, getting over the gain line, linking well with other players, good body positions in rucks & accurate passing were all on display in the first 5 minutes. However, Romford defended well, denying Maldon too much territorial gain, despite the possession Maldon enjoyed. Maldon’s first mistake was a loose pass, which Romford quickly moved wide, creating an overlap & scoring under the posts, 0-7, completely against the run of play. Romford had a big pack & quick, strong backs & they played to their strengths. Maldon came back after this initial setback, having the lion’s share of possession, but due to the defence of Romford, they did not look like actually scoring. More territory & possession saw Maldon move towards the Romford 22m line, until another loose pass was made & ended up the same way, with a try to Romford, 0-14. Romford had scored twice only having had the ball twice. Maldon had some passages of play & created space, but still could not cross the Romford line. Maldon’s defence did improve, but Romford did manage to break through a couple of times & only some last-ditch cover tackles prevented the chance of further tries. A demonstration of not understanding the rules was shown by kicking a free-kick straight to touch, much to the crowd’s amusement!
0-14 at half-time.
Maldon kicked off the 2nd half with renewed purpose. Stronger running & better handling in the first few minutes produced space for centre Brad White to score, 5-14. This was closely followed by a strong scrum & a clever backs’ move, to put winger Dan Allen in for a try in the corner, 10-14. Maldon had momentum & were now on top. Romford suffered with a number of injuries & enforced substitutions, including their influential full back. Maldon turned the screw & delighted the crowd with more good handling & support, for Dan Allen to score again, 15-14 to Maldon, in the lead for the first time.
Romford tried to get back in the game, but centre Olly Lyons hacked through, chased his own kick & put pressure on the defender, who tried to clear, only to kick the ball straight to the arms of prop George Perkins, who carried the ball 5cm to the try line, 20-14 to Maldon.
With the mist descending & the light fading Romford threw everything at Maldon, gaining a line-out near the try line. A driving maul resulted in a try, but the conversion was missed, 20-19 to Maldon.
The final 5 minutes were tense, with Maldon determined not to kick the ball away from danger, but to run it out of their 22. Eventually, the final whistle went & Maldon enjoyed their first win for a few weeks. Maldon are now joint 7th (along with 8th & 9th) & a further win next week will greatly help to be mid-table at the half-way point in the season.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Jamie Farrup, outstanding in attack & defence.
