Maidenhead & Windsor

Maidenhead RFC begin the second half of the season with a determination to win all their games at Maidenhead Braywick Park despite the disruption of a long injury list.

Maidenhead Maids start the New Year by entertaining Oxford Harlequins and are looking for revenge for the narrow defeat in the away match.

Simon Edwards, Maids coach, said: "We feel very aggrieved at the result at their ground, having gone ahead and we felt we should never have lost the game.

"We've trained well for this and we are looking for payback time."

Reflecting on the backend of 2005, Edwards acknowledged that some erratic results were down to the side being unsettled by so many injuries.

Edwards said: "If it wasn't for the injury crisis we would have been in the top two. But to lose a whole back division is devastating to a small club, you just cannot compensate for that.

"But the youngsters who have been drafted in have really put their backs into it."

The situation has now been compounded with the loss of three more key players. Though on a positive note, the Maidenhead team sees the arrival of three players next week - all Kiwis - to strengthen the squad.

Looking ahead, Edwards said: "We set targets at the start of a year and what we want is to be unbeaten at home. It's a big challenge with big teams coming to us, but our aim is to finish very well."

Maidenhead Maids coach Simon Edwards has recently had a different perspective than club rugby,with a stint as coach to the South West Division Regional squad.

Before Christmas Edwards went with the squad of Under-19 players to Spain for warm weather training and they played a match against Spain U19s and beat them 32-7.

Edwards said: "It was a successful trip and they billed us as England U19s and the match was on TV."

That has been followed up with the SW Division playing in the Castlecroft Festival where they recorded the same scoreline of 32-7 in a victory against the North of England.

"It's nice to get out of the environment of club rugby for a while, especially as we had to build a team out of 25 players we did not know."

Edwards was one of three coaches for those matches.

ic Berkshire Maidenhead