Bough relishes Maidenhead's underdog tag ahead of challenging opening fixtures

Maidenhead’s Shawn Ingle. Photo: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead chairman Steve Bough is confident Maids will continue to punch above their weight and land a few knock out blows to bigger teams as he looks ahead to the start of the new Regional 1 South Central campaign.

Maids have been handed a tough start to the season on paper - with most of last season’s top six set to play them in the opening weeks - however, Bough is convinced this young, hungry, dynamic rugby club will continue to thrill - and possibly spill - in equal measure as they look to mix it with the top sides.

That hasn’t happened for the past couple of seasons, with Maids finding themselves down in the lower to middle reaches of the league for much of the campaign, however, Bough knows the crowds will continue to flock down to Braywick Park while Maids are playing such exciting rugby under head coach David Mobbs-Smith.

There will be a few new faces in the squad this season, with pre-season now well underway, but Maids will largely field a young team - that’s gaining experience all the time - in their opening match at CS Stags on Saturday week (September 6).

“Yeah, I don’t think that has changed for a number of years,” he said.

“Predominantly our senior squad is made up of Maidenhead boys. 60 or 70 per cent of our match day squads are from the club, if not more, and I think that’s going to continue.

“We’ve got some new players coming in and they’re bedding themselves in.

“There are a couple of very promising players and we’ve also lost a few players this summer with them going back to university. That’s a shame but we knew that was happening.

“We’ll continue in the same manner. We’re still a relatively small side up against bigger sides. Mobbsy and the coaching team are preparing the team like they usually do to have a bit of fun, throw the ball around and see where we end up.”

Maids played out some of the most exciting games in the division last season. Their 46-45 victory over Jersey at home in March was a match for the ages, and one which will be talked about for years to come at Braywick.

They grasped victories and bonus points from the hands of defeat on several occasions - but likewise chucked away some winning positions in gut-wrenching fashion.

Although it’s wearing on his nerves, Bough sort of hopes that remains the case this season, while there is also the play-off factor to consider this season.

“It’s the same old story,” he said.

“We know we can play good rugby both up front and in the backs.

“We just need to be able to compete on a physical level, which is always going to be a struggle against some of the bigger sides. We know if we can get close to parity up front we’re a very good attacking side and we’ll go from there. The members and the players know we don’t go out and buy players, that’s not what we do, so we are going to suffer a little bit from that mentality.

“We are going to lose a few games because of it, but the fans that come, and we’re getting 500/600 fans every home match if not more, they want to see a good game of rugby.

“They’re disappointed if we lose obviously, but they want to see young lads go out there and express themselves and have fun. It’s important for the boys and the fans for them to do that.

“It adds to the excitement. We want to win every game, that’s the objective, but predominantly, we’re a local club with local boys who just want to go out and have fun on the pitch and have fun off it afterwards.”

Maidenhead have recently returned from playing friendly matches at Treorchy in Wales and got themselves a little more battle-hardened with a friendly against Beaconsfield at Braywick on Thursday last week.

Bough said: “We went up to Treorchy with pretty much all the boys and it was a great team bonding trip.

“These matches provide an opportunity to see players in other positions. We’re not too worried about results in pre-season, it’s very much about trying to get an idea of where we want people to play and are the new players fitting in and buying into the structure.

“That’s the way Mobbsy sets out those games.

“He sets them up to get the most out of them rather than being worried about the result.”