London Olympians 54-0
Maidstone Pumas
The Maidstone Pumas
welcomed the newly reformed London Olympians to Aylesford Rugby Club on
Saturday, in a change to the previously scheduled game. In a former guise the
Olympians were 10 times champions of the British League. However, having to
take time out, Coach Smart and team have generated a significant amount of
interest in South London, coupled with television appearances on the Local
London News.
Club General Manager,
Stuart Crowley explained. “Aylesford RFC was successful in bidding to host the
Kent Rugby Union cup finals which would have clashed with our schedule game
against London. With 8 clubs participating and an estimate crowd of over 2000
coming to watch, we felt that moving the date was the only alternative. I would
like to thank The Olympian management, coaches and players for making the game
playable”.
The Olympians moved the
ball on their first drive by mixing the run and the pass. However, James
Cherry, playing out of position at safety intercepted the Olympians pass in the
endzone to snuff out what looked like a score. Maidstone took the ball over and
moved down the field the highlight of which was a 25 yard pass from John Bowden
to Aaron Shepherd. However, the Pumas failed to finish off the drive.
The visiting Olympians
opened the scoring shortly before end of the first quarter when a reverse run
went 22 yards for the score. The reverse was the favourite play of the day and
achieved a further 3 touchdowns on the day.
At the half time break
and being 20 – 0 down, the Pumas coaches were happy with what they had seen.
The second half started almost in a mirror fashion to the first half, with a
Maidstone interception. This time it was veteran Karl Cooke, playing only his
second game in the Orange and Black, caught the ball and made 15 yards on the
run back.
The Pumas unveiled new
running back Paul Crawford, who has transferred in from the Kent Exiles.
Crawford is expected to be one of several new signings in the next few weeks.
The speed of the athletic
Olympians started to wear down the small Pumas squad and despite being out of
the game; the Pumas can take a lot of positives out of the game.
Coach Norman Navarro made
the following statement at the end of the game, “It’s funny to say I can walk
away from a loss feeling positive but I saw a lot to look forward to against a
fantastically athletic and well coached team. The Olympians played a smart fundamentally
sound game and I am sure they will be in the mix for a place in the final. As
for us, I think that the adjustments made from last week improved us and I know
things are getting better. We’ll take the next week in training to rework a few
issue and we’ll be ready to play the Mavericks on Sunday 24th May”.
The Pumas continue to
recruit players for this season and beyond. Please check the schedule on the
Pumas website
www.pumasafc.co.uk.