BOURNVILLE SECURE BONUS POINT WIN DESPITE OFF DAY PERFORMANCE

After last week’s tough encounter against local rivals Old Halesonians, Bournville travelled to picturesque Ludlow for what would be a challenging fixture. A number of changes were made following last week’s victory, Phil Brown, Hesy Fakatou and Nick Southern coming in to the forwards and Adam Coniff the backs. Carl Colvin returned to his more familiar position of outside centre replacing the injured Robin Eatough. Robin broke his hand last week and will be missing until the New Year; we wish him a speedy recovery.

In damp conditions Bournville needed a good start and immediately applied pressure to the Ludlow defence. This resulted in a penalty, well converted by Alex Warner, who was looking to have a better day with the boot compared to last week. Bournville were finding it hard to put together phase play, making several mistakes and gifting the ball to the opposition. Ludlow had a lot of possession and they were breaking through a number of sloppy tackles which was uncharacteristic of this usually strong Bournville defence. Ludlow applied a lot of pressure to Bournville and they were rewarded with a number of penalties, one of which was converted by their fly half.

Bournville gradually started to put together their usual flowing moves and they managed to stretch the Ludlow defence. After decent running out wide from the backs, Adrian Maynard popped up in the middle of the pitch to break a tackle and race over the line for the first try of the match, converted by Alex Warner. Unfortunately Bournville were unable to build on this and they found themselves missing more tackles and making unforced errors. The half ended on a relative high with Ludlow conceding a kickable penalty which Alex Warner happily dispatched to leave the half time score at 13-3.

After some stern words from Head Coach Rod Petty at half time, Bournville made changes with Matt Dickerson on for Simon Homer and Alex Ward for Dan Barratt. Bournville started the better of the two sides, defensive tackles were going in lower and their patterned play was starting to tire the Ludlow defence. Credit must be given to Ludlow as their scramble defence and ability to slow down ruck ball stopped a number of Bournville attacks. The game needed a moment of magic which was duly delivered by Carl Colvin, who beat his marker with a classic hand off, before dancing past the fullback and running the remaining 30metres to score a great solo effort.

Unfortunately minutes after this Bournville switched off and allowed Ludlow back into the game. A clever cross field kick which was not claimed led to a Ludlow score in the corner against the run of play. Bournville went straight back up the other end of the field and were given a penalty in front of the posts which Alex Warner converted. With time running out Bournville pressed the Ludlow line looking for two more tries to get the bonus point and keep them in touch with Sutton Coldfield at the top of the table. After considerable pressure by the Bournville pack the backs were given good ball and a cut out pass from Carl Colvin sent Adam Coniff in to the corner for Bournville’s third try.  With Ludlow’s defence tiring, a well chased kick and interesting footballing skills from Nick Southern, Adam Coniff picked up a loose ball and used his pace to beat the covering defenders and score his second try of the game and Bournville’s fourth. Alex Warner converted to leave the final score 35-8.

After the match Rob Griffin who was an enforced spectator for this game had mixed emotions, “I am relieved we won but frustrated with the way we played. We let ourselves down today after a good performance last week and I hope the lads will reflect on this and make sure we cut out the errors, especially the missed tackles.

Next week Bournville travel to Whitchurch, the fixture that was postponed at the start of the season.  This was the opening fixture last season and Bournville lost the match in a close encounter. Bournville will be looking to bounce back after a poor performance at Ludlow and keep the pressure on league leaders Sutton Coldfield.
  
Bournville line-up: 1. Paul Coles, 2. Phil Brown, 3. Ian Coles, 4. Simon Homer, 5. Dai Hallmen, 6. Hesy Fakatou, 7. Adrian Maynard, 8. Nick Southern, 9. Rod Petty, 10. Alex Warner, 11. Chris Humphrey, 12. Paul Cox, 13. Carl Colvin, 14. Dan Barratt, 15. Adam Coniff,16. Dean Bick, 17. Matt Dickerson, 18. Alex Ward STAND OUT PLAYERS: Carl Colvin & Matt Dickerson

Match report by Dicko. Match pics by Sully - click here. League table - click here.