Sat 8 Mar 2025
Maldon welcomed near neighbours Burnham to Drapers for the last home game of the season. Having beaten Burnham at their place earlier in the season, Maldon were keen to repeat that victory. With Burnham near the bottom of the table & Maldon near the top, on paper at least Maldon were confident of a victory, but they knew a strong performance was still needed. Personnel changes included Joe Entwistle making his first start & Dylan Bunting making his first team debut.
Maldon started well, with quick ball allowing them to make ground & apply pressure to Burnham. In a strange moment of play Maldon following a chip over the top by Brad White, the ball was dotted down before the try line, Burnham picked up the ball and cleared their lines. With a scrum 10m out, a simple move saw Joshua Chadwick break through an attempted tackle to score under the posts, then convert his own try for an early 7-0 lead. Burnham responded by using their strong runners to charge at the Maldon defence. Maldon spent the next period of the game defending, with Burnham struggling to cross the gainline. Maldon, however, gave ground via penalties, the most common being high tackles. After 10 minutes of defending, Maldon managed to move down the pitch, resulting in brilliant hands by Jack Evans to allow George Perkins to power his way over the line for a converted try, 14-0. Then, a repeat of the last 10 minutes, with Burnham having plenty of the ball, but unable to break through the Maldon defence. Burnham had a scrum on the Maldon 22m line, which was a bit messy & scrum half Olly Anthony displayed amazing skills to intercept a pass, somehow preventing the ball from hitting the ground at all, then, with no hint of a knock-on, regathering the ball & sprinting ¾ of the pitch for a converted try under the posts, leaving the defenders grasping at thin air as he showed his pace, cheered on by the large crowd. 21-0, 21 minutes on the clock.
Then, a repeat of the previous events. Maldon were poor at ball retention & Burnham had all the possession & most of the territory. Maldon did defend well, stopping Burnham, with all players doing their best to stop the chance of a score. However, Burnham finally managed to cross the line, due to a missed tackle close to the line, 21-5.
The rest of the half followed the same pattern, with Maldon defending & Burnham attacking. Maldon led 21-5 at half time, but felt they could be performing much better.
The half-time message was clear, reduce penalties & improve the standard of play.
Maldon listened to this message & started with an improved standards. An early surge brought play to the Burnham 22m line & Brad White threw a dummy or two & strolled in for a converted try, 28-5. Within a few minutes, from a similar position, a similar outcome, as Brad White repeated his run & dummies, crossing for another converted try, 35-5. Burnham were unable to live with the pace that Maldon were playing at & suffered with injuries. Maldon did find the game a bit trickier when Jack Evans then Olly Lyons saw yellow cards issued for high tackles, but still kept Burnham out, preventing any more scores. Ben Cooper showed great work to stay on his feet and feed Olly Lyons to score by brushing off defenders with ease, Dan Allen scored 2 tries, one of which was the result of great handling by the backs, the other of which was a brilliant kick and chase solo effort.. The game finished with Jack Evans and George Perkins combining again. Evans took a quick penalty, made some ground before passing to Perkins to cross the try line again & Joshua Chadwick kicked his 7th conversion (should have been 8 if he didn’t miss a previous conversion from right in front of the posts!), for an emphatic victory, 59-5.
Next game is in a fortnight away against Chingford.
