Maidstone Rugby Club head coach Andy Foley pays tribute to team as dream of RFU Vase final at Twickenham ends
Action from the Maidstone v Wells RFU Vase
national semi-final
by Mark Stokes
Head coach Andy Foley says Maidstone players could not have
given any more than they did in their RFU Vase national semi-final
defeat against Wells.
Saturday’s game at The Mote was in the balance until the final
five minutes when Wells grabbed a try to earn a 14-8 victory and
deprive Maidstone of the chance to play at Twickenham.
Foley admitted the players were disappointed in the immediate
aftermath of the defeat but said they had every reason to be proud
of their performance.
He said: "The game was nip and tuck all the way and in the end
could have gone either way, we were just a bit unlucky.
"We probably had a lot more possession than them, they just had
one chance which they took well. Even then, into injury time we
were all over them but just could not get over the line. Their
defence was good and a lot of our guys said it was the toughest
game they’d had.
"Initially everyone was pretty down, realising that they weren’t
going to Twickenham but eventually they realised they could not
have done any more and they had produced a performance to be proud
of."
Foley said he had no complaints about the result but was
surprised at the appointment of a Dutch referee and felt that Luke
Debnam’s second-half yellow card changed the dynamic of the
contest.
Maidstone still have two games to play in London 3 South East,
both at home, against Bromley on Saturday and Sheppey on April
21.
12/04/12
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