On a day best suited to ducks Maidstone were a little unlucky to record one.
This was second from top playing bottom but there are no pushovers in this league and, with conditions on such a day always likely to be a leveller and Maidstone’s relative strength lying in their well-nourished pack rather than in any great elusiveness on their backs’ part, there was just a whiff of possible upset in the air.
That possibility was not completely snuffed out until late into the second half. True, CS had led 12-0 at the break through two Will Scott tries, a lead which appeared comfortable enough but Maidstone still had other ideas and with parity of possession this had become a muddy arm wrestle in which the honours were remarkably even.
Inevitably, it took a self-inflicted wound to break the second half stale-mate. With 36 second half minutes on the clock CS fly -hacked a loose ball through, Maidstone got into a tangle and, in trying to avoid conceding a five metre scrum, the pragmatic option, they compounded their mistake by fumbling and gifted a score with Houstoun the beneficiary..
It had been a game marked by many stoppages and in the third of the seven additional second half minutes the Stags got their line-out drive right at last following a penalty stuck into the corner and hooker Josh Forrester emerged with his tenth try of the campaign, thereby securing a bonus point which not that long before had looked unlikely .
A happy ending therefore to a somewhat prosaic story : previous line-out from penalty attempts had ended up with the Stags being penalised themselves , a couple of home scrums had been turned over too although honours in that department ended up pretty even and there had been occasions when the basics had simply been ignored. To see the ball – rather than being protected – treated on occasion like a hot potato that has to be shipped on at all costs was a matter of concern and contrary to all wisdom and the basics of how to play on a day such as this one. When your hot potato happens also to be a bar of soap potential disaster is never far away.
When the Stags showed patience and kept their calm , they looked the better side but too often here they became over anxious or lost discipline ( the penalty count was also unacceptably high ) and there are certainly lessons to be taken on board as to how to manage games in conditions such as these.
They may get another chance to show how to do it when they visit Old Colfeians for the first time this week. Ko is 1400.