Experience trumps youth
Havant defeat Maids to close in on league title but Mobbs-Smith was impressed by side
Havant's experience told over Maidenhead's youth as the home side ran out comfortable 44-12 winners in Saturday's clash, but head coach David MobbsSmith was still mightily impressed with the contribution made by his young side.
On the face of it, this was a bit of a mismatch, with 11 of Maidenhead's 18 man squad having recently come through the youth ranks up against a Havant side boasting nearly 1,500 caps at senior level.
And in the opening 24 minutes that told, as the league leaders blasted out of the blocks to make it 24-0 before the visitors could draw breath.
But they managed to get a foothold in the game and went on to dominate the remainder of the half, scoring twice to make it 24-12 at the interval, and Mobbs-Smith fancied they might just pull off a sensational comeback when he was chatting to them in the changing room. That never materialised, in the main due to three yellow cards which stole away their momentum and handed Havant the initiative to go on and close out a dominant victory.
However, this was a much better performance than the scoreline suggests, and Maids will take some confidence from it was they prepare to meet fourth-placed Tunbridge Wells on Saturday week (March 16).
Mobbs-Smith said: “They built a very quick lead. It was 24-0 after 24 minutes so they were scoring at pretty much a point a minute and it looked like the game was gone.
“But for the rest of the half, it was all us. We came off at 24-12 and the momentum was with us. We were feeling quite positive in the changing room, but we went out and picked up two yellow cards almost immediately and it just changed the game.
“From one of those, they took the penalty and kicked it, so that tells you mentally where they were in the game at the time. They didn’t think about running in more tries, it was all about putting more points on the board.
“That just gave them a gap that we were never able to close, but we had a young side out on Saturday and those who played really did excel. The
performance and the score didn’t quite tally up as it felt more like a 40-22 kind of game. That’s what it should have been, but we blew a few chances in attack and gave them a couple of soft tries.”
Mobbs-Smith had taken in the club's Colts' game against Windsor at a packed Braywick Park on Friday evening and spoke about the conveyor belt of talent that has come through from the youth ranks in recent seasons.
“They're (Havant) a very good side and it will take something special to stop them,” he said. “They must play Bracknell away on Bracknell's pitch, so that might not go their way, but other than that they're home and dry (for the title).
“They're also very experienced and we had to play a lot of young players. 11 of our 18 had come through from the colts in recent seasons. One of them played in that same Colts' game last season and is just 18.
“They (Havant) had one guy in the centre who was picking up his 258th cap and they had close to 1,500 caps on the pitch.
“It was experience against youth and experience told in the key moments as it tends to do. They made the right decisions at the right times and played well, but then so did we.
“We haven’t come away from the game feeling down or defeated. We know we played well but we just didn't get the scores that would have given us a bonus point which I felt we deserved.”
Maids have just three games remaining in the league, at home to Tunbridge, away to Brighton (March 23) and home to relegation-threatened Bournemouth (April 6) with the aim now simply to finish at the top of a mini league against the four sides currently below them in the table. Eighth is the best they can do this season before they head into the end of season Regional 1 Shield matches against Bournemouth again, Hertford and Westcliff. Maids will be aiming to get through the group and make it to the final of the cup competition, as they did in the plate last season when they were beaten in the final by Macclesfield.
“Tunbridge Wells will pose us the same problems as Havant,” added Mobbs-Smith. “They're a mature, physical side and they play good rugby. They're fourth in the league, but the difference this time is that we're at home and we'd hope to put in a really good performance and have everyone available.
“Finishing in the bottom two would be the worstcase scenario for us this season so we'd take anything on any terms other than getting relegated.
“But we'd like to finish where we are (eighth) and when you consider where we were in November, near the bottom of the table, we’ve had a pretty good second half of the season. There’s a mini league at the bottom and we’d like to finish at the top of it. We’ve got three games and two of them are at home. If we perform well in two of those three, we’ll be there or there abouts.”