BOURNVILLE EDGE HOME IN TESTING DERBY THRILLER

On Saturday 22nd October Bournville welcomed local rivals Old Halesonians to the University for what is always a bruising encounter between two well-matched teams. The usual “good natured” competitive spirit on display was further heightened this time with Bournville still undefeated this season lying second in the league and with Old Hales having suffered only one defeat at the hands of league leaders Sutton. Therefore, the victor of this match was almost certain to be vying with Sutton for promotion to National League 3.

With former captain Nick Southern temporarily unavailable, Bournville were forced to make some changes to the usually settled back row with Matt Dickerson replacing Nick at no.8 and David Hallmen joining Simon Homer in the second row. The Bournville pack was strengthened by the return of 1st XV Captain Paul Coles to stamp some much needed authority up front.  Among the backs, Carl Colvin returned to make his first team league debut this season re-uniting with long-time partner from their days playing for Moseley, Paul Cox. Chris Humphrey moved from wing to full-back in place of the temporarily absent Alex Ward with Dan Barratt taking the other winger’s spot.

Old Hales started well and for the first 10 minutes most of the action took place in the Bournville half of the pitch. Old Hales were handed the first opportunity to score with a penalty narrowly missed by their usually reliable full-back. However, gradually things began to move Bournville’s way and the home side struck the first blow with an Alex Warner penalty after 15 minutes of play. Bournville’s lead was increased just 3 minutes later with a well taken try from centre Robin Eatough who once again demonstrated his class by seeming to slide effortlessly through an experienced Old Hales’ defence to find a narrow gap and score out on the wing. Warner failed to make a difficult conversion leaving Bournville with an 8-0 lead.

Bournville then dominated the next 15 minutes of intense and bruising play but despite sustained pressure from the Bournville forwards and coming very close to scoring on two occasions their efforts went unrewarded. Instead, with Bournville flanker Rob Griffin confined to the sin-bin for tripping an opposition player, Old Hales fully exploited a few seconds of Bournville indiscipline   and also their temporary numerical advantage to allow flying winger Luke Smith to demonstrate his phenomenal turn of speed and agility to slip past the Bournville defence, running almost the entire length of the pitch in the process before scoring in the left hand top corner. Old Hales failed to make the conversion, leaving the score finely balanced at 8-5 in favour of the home-side.

Shortly thereafter Bournville suffered a serious blow when try-scoring machine Robin Eatough was forced to retire with a suspected broken hand (later sadly confirmed). With the seconds counting down to the half-time whistle another Smith created break allowed the Old Hales full-back the opportunity to score with a converted try. This left the score at 8-12 when the half-time whistle was blown with the large and enthusiastic Bournville crowd wondering how so promising a start could have been so easily thrown away.

Bournville came out for the second half with renewed fire in their bellies inspired by a few well-chosen words in the huddle from Messrs Sigley and Petty (the “Laurel and Hardy” of Bournville Rugby). For the third time this season Petty delivered at the crucial moment scoring from the first breakdown after just 1 minute of play to give Bournville a narrow 13-12 lead.  Bournville again looked strongest up front and for the next 20 minutes the play was centred in the Old Hales’ 22. However, Bournville again failed to exploit the pressure they had managed to build up and despite valiant efforts from the forwards failed to make it across the Old Hales’ line.

Instead, as in the first half, Old Hales’ flying winger Luke Smith took full advantage of an interception running almost the full length of the pitch and only passing to the Old Hales’ full-back in the final moment before he in turn dived over the line to score. Following the conversion the score was now 19-13 to Old Hales with just over 15 minutes of play left to go.

Bournville had no option but to go back on the attack and to take the game to their opponents. A majestically placed kick from Alex Warner resulted in a throw in from well within the Old Hales’ 22 and following a sustained period of pressure from the Bournville forwards eventually Rob Griffin was able to smash through for a powerful try. This left Warner with a difficult kick to edge Bournville into a 1 point lead, but in a rare off game for the league’s most consistent kicker and top points scorer, Warner’s kick agonisingly struck the left-hand post before bouncing back harmlessly into the waiting hands of Old Hales. With the home side 18-19 behind and with only 10 minutes left to play the scene was set for yet another knife-edge finish and with both sides still firmly believing they could win the game.

With the Old Hales’ flanker having been shown the yellow card for persistent infringements, a further extended period of sustained Bournville pressure up front was rewarded with a try from replacement winger Adam Coniff, on for the injured Robin Eatough (with Carl Colvin moving to centre). Following another missed conversion Bournville were left defending a narrow 23-19 lead with only 4 minutes of time left to play. Following the loss of Rob Griffin for a second yellow card and with just injury time remaining the Old Hales’ full-back (who had an excellent game) made a final desperate attempt to seize victory by finding touch deep in the Bournville half resulting in a throw in from within the Bournville 22. However, the clock had finally run out and with the ball driven back into touch the game came to a sudden end with a narrow but satisfying victory by the Bournville team which in the process secured an all important try scoring bonus point for the home side.

After the match former Hippo of the Year and former 1st XV prop Andrew Wilson commented “It is always pleasing to come away from any encounter against Old Hales with a win on the score sheet and both sides were really pumped up for the game. It was a big disappointment for us to lose Robin Eatough to injury in the first half and let’s hope he is back fit and playing again before too long.  The promotion campaign remains on track but with big games against title challengers Walsall and Sutton on the horizon the boys can take nothing for granted. All in all a satisfying day in the office but let’s not get too cocky or complacent just yet. There is still a long way to go”.
 
Next week Bournville travel to newly-promoted Ludlow for what should be another challenging game.

Bournville line-up: 1. Paul Coles, 2. Dean Bick, 3. Ian Coles, 4. David Hallmen, 5. Simon Homer, 6. Robert Griffin, 7. Adrian Maynard, 8. Matt Dickerson, 9. Rod Petty, 10. Alex Warner, 11. Carl Colvin, 12. Paul Cox, 13. Robin Eatough, 14. Dan Barratt, 15. Chris Humphrey, 16. Phil Brown, 17. Hesy Fakatou, 18. Adam Coniff STAND OUT PLAYERS: Paul Cox & Matt Dickerson

Match report by 'Raving' reporter Darren Clegg. Match pics by Sully - click here. League Table - click here.