Stones Roll Chiswick Over

Rugby Result : Maidstone 42 Chiswick 26

A cold wet Kentish day was enlivened by this action-packed thriller of a game, which started at 100 m.p.h. and barely slowed.

Given the conditions it was sensible for the players to warm up quickly, but five tries in ten minutes was unexpected, with both teams pouring players into the tackle. A careless touch kick by the home team gave Chiswick an early lineout on the home 22, and with unusually accurate lineout work, the visitors showed their usual mauling ability, heading in towards the posts from the left before the ball was spun out right. Centre Max Burrows made an initial break, and then Dan Godfrey found his way through to the posts. Simon Hallett added the easy points.

A stung Maidstone came straight back, gaining a penalty directly from the kickoff, and setting up a 5 metre lineout with an excellent touch kick. Their pack even managed a bit of forward momentum as they gathered the throw, and the touchdown was almost immediate. The conversion kick from wide out was text-book. Sam Hobbins chased the kick-off and got in a good tackle. Maidstone’s long kick was fielded by Tom Steer, and Gabs Lowe put in a good kick down the right touchline, producing a panicky sliced kick by the home team. Hobbins was involved again, and then Marc Copperwheat surged towards the home line.

Chiswick retained possession well, and after Dan Sutherland had failed to jink his way through the defence, the forwards showed him how, with Rikki Darroch (speciality superspeed crawl ) getting the touchdown. Hallett had another easy kick. The seven point lead lasted less than a minute, with a Maidstone back finding a gap in the Chiswick defence after the home team had gained possession from their kickoff. No conversion this time.

Kickoffs should haunt Chiswick. Maidstone ran straight through them after commandeering the ball, and although the conversion kick was sliced, it sailed over after heading wide of the left post. Chiswick now got careless as they tried to attack from deep, and Maidstone took advantage with an interception try. Chiswick managed to force the scorer wide, but the kick bounced on the bar and went over. Maidstone kept up their wind-assisted pressure, and soon got another, well-worked try, not converted, following their first successful attempt to push the Chiswick scrum back. The hard-working Nathan was unfortunate to get hit by a Chiswick player and had to go off, giving Sam Hood plenty of time to warm himself up.

A chastened Chiswick slowly came back into the game, and managed some sustained pressure around the home 22, centred on their forwards. Captain Sam Leslie-Miller did a great job behind a retreating pack when Chiswick gained a 5 metre scrum, but then lost the ball. Maidstone showed a sudden vulnerability, though, in trying to clear the ball, and a pass back over the try line allowed Hallett to get his fingertips to the ball first, and then to get the conversion, to make it 8 tries in the half.

Chiswick were unlucky that the wind slowly shifted to across the pitch in the second half. Maidstone got back on top, with their Nos. 4, 7 and 8 in particular proving difficult to stop. Huge pressure on the Chiswick line, with a mass of intertwined bodies led to the referee flourishing a yellow card at a Chiswick player. One good thing for Chiswick in all of this was that Luca Vannini came on for his first appearance for a long time – he might have preferred to wait for a kinder situation, but he was immediately effective as the team tried to regroup, with Burrows going to fly half. A musical touch came when a Stone rolled over several times clutching the ball, and was clearly not sure which way he was facing at the end.

Maidstone soon achieved a two man overlap, but knocked the ball on metres from the Chiswick line. An interesting move produced their next try. Their wing was chased right across the pitch by Steer, who eventually got a tackle in just too late to prevent a pass. The recipient found a great running line from halfway, and just eluded Sutherland with Leslie-Miller in close pursuit. Maidstone got one more try, and then Chiswick racked up a well-deserved bonus point when Vannini took advantage of a lapse in concentration by the home team.

Chiswick team:- Chraplywji, Dibble, Newman, Hobbins, Orpen-Palner, Copperwheat, Darroch, Leslie-Miller, Lowe, Hallett, Purkiss, Burrows, Godfrey, Steer, Sutherland; Filbey, Hood, Vannini

February 13, 2017