Bridging the gap to promotion contenders will be easier said than done for Maids

Alex Turton. Photo: Paul Morgan

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Getting closer to the top teams in the Regional 1 South Central Division will be the aim for Maidenhead head coach David Mobbs-Smith and his players next season but achieving that will be easier said than done.

Mobbs-Smith admits that several controllable and uncontrollable factors will impact the club’s ability to haul themselves up the division, however, he’s confident his squad are starting to develop the maturity and experience to challenge in the coming seasons.

That’s been the blueprint for success demonstrated by this season’s title-winners London Welsh and Mobbs-Smith is keen for Maids to replicate that if they can, however, he’ll need some time to improve and develop the young players he has, as well as some financial backing to bring in one or two more experienced players to lift the team to the next level.

“That’s the process we’re going through right now,” said Mobbs-Smith. “Some of the guys in our squad are still under 24 and look at how many caps they have already. Drew Prince, Phil Wells, Greg Smith, who has captained the side a few times this season, are all starting to become very experienced players. I think that bodes well for the team going forward.

“Max Keller at hooker is just getting better and better. He’s a talented player, but he’s effectively playing against men. He’s going to be a fully grown man in rugby terms in the next year or two and we’ll have a really experienced front rower playing for us. In our last league game against Horsham, nine of the 18 had come through our youth section. From a very young age. Not just from being 18, they’ve come through from the minis section.”

There are though several ‘uncontrollable factors’ which could put a ceiling on Maids’ success. For example, there are three or possibly even four new sides joining the division next season, including promoted sides London Scottish and Farnham and Worthing - who’ve been relegated from National 2. They’ll add something new to the league next season and present new challenges for the current incumbents in an expanded division.

Maidenhead also has no control over how well their rivals recruit over the summer, an unknown factor that could dramatically alter a team’s standing in the division. Last season CS Stags finished in the bottom half of the table, this season they’ve finished third, and Mobbs-Smith says that matching their ability to grind out results in tight matches will also be key.

“There will be three new teams in our league next season and there is also sometimes sideways movement as well,” he said. “So, it’s harder to judge because you don’t know how good those new teams are going to be. We’ll lose London Welsh, but those other teams may strengthen the division. These are uncontrollables and we can only focus on our own journey.

“This season it was difficult to gain real momentum and belief because we played the best five teams all in a row, twice. But we’ve got to try and win more of those matches, which is what CS Stags managed to do. This season has been similar to last season in that we’ve beaten all the teams around us and below us in the table. The only top side we managed to beat at home was Jersey. If we could win a few more of those matches it would change our whole season. But the entertainment has been amazing. It’s been heart rendering for some fans I think, and we’ve won a few matches with last minute kicks. But that’s part of who we are. We play an attacking style and that makes us a bit more vulnerable at times. Sometimes that blows up in our faces like it did on Saturday against Bracknell/

“But players here get to touch the ball and be decision makers as opposed to playing with a one-dimensional functionality. And we also play in front of 500/600 people sometimes when teams above us are playing to only 100 people.”

Maidenhead’s season officially ended with Saturday’s 47-17 home defeat to local rivals Bracknell in the Papa John’s Regional Plate competition, with their visitors going on to play Old Alleynians in the next round.

While disappointed to have exited the competition and not extended their season by a few more weeks, Mobbs-Smith has been satisfied with the side’s end to the campaign which saw them win their final five home matches to finish in seventh place - two points adrift of Bracknell in sixth. However, there was then a big gap to the top five teams in what became an increasingly two-tiered division.

“You can never say that (predict where you’ll finish) because you don’t know what the other teams are doing,” added Mobbs-Smith. “You have no control over what they do, over their recruitment, or the financial adjustments they might make to be able to recruit. All we can do is strengthen the team where we feel it needs strengthening and try to start the season a bit more like how we finished it.”