Sat 29 Oct 2022
Maldon travelled to the Isle of Dogs & the picturesque surroundings of Millwall Park, which is a lot better than Hackney Marshes, where Millwall played last season.
Maldon started really well, blasting Millwall backwards at the first scrum & scoring within a few minutes, Sam Johnson in the corner, 0-5. Jamie Farrup made many metres with some strong running that Millwall struggled to stop. Then, there was about 25 minutes of average rugby, in which Maldon tried to offload too much & took the wrong options. But, they did tackle well whenever Millwall had the ball. The scrum & line-out were both going well, but in the first half Maldon did not capitalise on this dominance.
Eventually, following a pass that definitely went backwards, winger Dan Allen scored in the corner, converted by Joshua Chadwick, 0-12, which was the score at half-time.
The 2nd half started & Chadwick kicked a penalty to make the score 0-15. Millwall then got into the game more & Maldon made a number of errors allowing them territory, resulting in a try for Millwall, 5-15.
Despite a good line out so far, Maldon started having trouble here in the second half. Also, a number of passes went astray with opportunities beckoning. But, this seemed to wake Maldon up & they began to play better in open play.
Ben Marshall started to have more of an influence with some barnstorming runs, which gave the team confidence. A yellow card for George Perkins for being too rough didn’t stop the run of play. The substitutes all contributed when they came on, Dimitri Sofoclous tackling non-stop, Ryan Galvin taking the ball to the line and making some half breaks, and Ryan Martin coming on for his 1st team debut holding his own in the scrum. A strong finish by Max Knight increased Maldons lead. Zak Knight finished a try well from some great handling in the backs. Also, Jack Judd went over again after Maldon showed patience inside the opposition 22. All three tries converted by Chadwick, this made the final score 5 - 36.
Maldon can be pleased with the outcome of this game, which keeps them at the top of the table. But, there are still a number of areas in which to improve. In the next few weeks there are some tough games & Maldon will need to be at the top of their game to continue the winning streak which includes all of last season & this season so far.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Ryan Martin - a great performance from the bench on his debut.
