Ingle and Marland star as Maidenhead fightback to beat Wimbledon 41–32

Photo credit: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead hadn’t beaten Wimbledon in any match since 2003, but they deservedly did so on Saturday with Shawn Ingle and Tom Marland impressing for the hosts at centre.

Two those - who were both named player of the match, Ingle by opponents Wimbledon and Marland by Maids’ match day sponsors - took this game by the scruff of the neck both defensively and offensively.

Negating the influence of Wimbledon’s danger men in the backline - Jack Reville and Paul Hendry - they managed to drag the home side back into contention with a thrilling second half performance. Backed up by their excellent teammates, Maids clawed their way back from 15-27 down in the early stages of the second half to lead 29-27. With the game on a knife edge and the result still very much uncertain, Maids drove home their advantage with two further scores to make it 41-32 at the final whistle.

The result is only their second win of the season, but it should give them real hope and optimism as they move into a phase of fixtures, they’ll hope to pick up more points from.

This Saturday sees them visit sixth placed - but newly promoted - London Scottish Lions who’ve started the season a lot better than many were predicting.

Reflecting on Saturday’s fine win, head coach Mobbs-Smith said: “Wimbledon is a tough game for us always.

“During that period (from 2003) they haven’t always been in our league.

“But it’s not one of those sides that we regularly beat or share the spoils with every season. We generally find it quite tough, and the match was as expected. They were attacking from everywhere and leading for large parts of the game. They managed to get a foothold in the game, and they put pressure on us.”

Wimbledon appear to be a bit of an enigma this season. They’d have started the campaign expecting to be among the division’s front runners, but their early results haven’t panned out that way, and they can’t find a way to stop their opponents scoring more than they do.

Saturday was third game in a row they’ve scored more than 30 points, but they’ve lost all three of those matches - to Worthing, Farnham and Maids - and are yet to win this season.

“That seems to be the pattern of their defeats,” said Mobbs-Smith. “That they can’t stop other teams from scoring more than them. At times they were playing some wonderful rugby and at one stage they were leading 27-15. It was 22-15 at half-time, so we were talking about how we were going to get back into the game. And then they went out and scored again.

“Then your focus is on whether we can get the tries we need for our bonus point. But then we got two quick tries, and we were leading 29-27. It became a game then that we really needed to win, but also a game that we could easily lose from that position.

“In a very short space of time it became a game that we suddenly had to find a way of closing out and winning. The team did really well at that.

“With that 29-27 situation, we scored again, two more times to take us to 41-27 so suddenly they had to chase us, and we do work in training on how we might hold onto a lead and the team played well once we were in that prime position. We were able to keep out a very determined Wimbledon team.”

On the contribution of Ingle - a forward who was drafted into the backline by necessity - and Marland, Mobbs-Smith added: “Our two centres had a huge game. We may have conceded 32 points, but we did manage to staunch their big attacking areas, which is through their centres, Ravell and Henry.

“Shawn Ingle and Tom Marland in those roles did so well. Shaun Ingle was voted man of the match by them and the sponsors gave Tom Marland man of the match. They did so well in attack and defence. He can play both roles. We do use him sometimes at 12 and this was one of those occasions.

“It sends the right message to some of our competitors. That we’re a very competitive side. That’s part of sport which is getting in the minds of your opponents.

“If you put on biggish scores, straight away people straight away have a respect for you and they play you slightly differently.”