Rugby preview: Maidenhead round off tough spell of fixtures with trip to Camberley

Photo credit: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead will return to league action at Camberley on Saturday as they finish off a ridiculously tough spell of matches against the Regional 1 South Central Division's top five sides.

Maids have played the five best teams in the division over consecutive weeks from the end of November and have lost every one of them so far.

However, perhaps crucially, they've managed to pick up useful bonus points in their most recent defeats to Wimbledon (57-26) and league leaders London Welsh (26-61), despite comprehensively losing both matches.

Those points have been enough to keep their necks above water as teams below them try to reel them in. They are, for the time being, eight points above second bottom Tunbridge Wells in the battle to avoid the drop and - after going away to third placed Camberley on Saturday - they have a more favourable run of fixtures to look forward to in the final months of the season.

Head coach David Mobbs-Smith won't be writing off their chances at Camberley this Saturday, but he's wise enough to know they're one of the division's powerhouses - especially on their own ground. They beat Maidenhead 21-49 at the end of September and will be strong favourites to claim a 10th win of the season when the teams meet on Saturday.

After that, Maids play just one more of the top four in their final eight matches and will look to rediscover the form which took them as high as sixth earlier in the season before this tough spell.

Elsewhere, Windsor will look to maintain their promotion hopes when they go to Buckingham on Saturday.

Andy Symons side will struggle to real in leaders Oxford Harlequins, who've won 13 from 13 matches this season. However, a second placed finish may yet be good enough for promotion and they currently look a good bet to do that in the Counties 1 Tribute Southern North.

They suffered a surprising 26-33 home defeat to Buckingham back in September but have since won seven of their last eight matches and are on a run of five games without defeat.

Marlow will also be looking to kick off 2025 on a positive note when they visit Old Haberdashers, after surprisingly losing 40-19 at home to Beaconsfield in their last match. Kev O'Byrne's side are ninth in the Regional 2 Thames table and have won three of their last four matches. They also hammered Haberdashers 50-12 at Riverwoods earlier in the season.