BOURNVILLE EARN IMPORTANT WIN AT WHITCHURCH

While most teams were enjoying a week off Bournville had the tricky away trip to Whitchurch. This fixture has always been a tough one for Bournville as they have never won at the home of Whitchurch rugby. Bournville were buoyed to welcome back Rob Griffin, Matt Dickerson and Alex Ward to the starting line up with Pete Nancarrow coming on to the bench to replace the injured Hesy Fakatou.

Bournville were keen to improve after last week’s sloppy performance against Ludlow but they again started slowly. This was in part to Whitchurch defence which was slowing down the ruck ball some of the time illegally. Bournville did build a number of attacks, Paul Cox at the forefront with his direct running but a couple of errors at vital points meant the scoring chances were lost. It was the pack that finally broke the stubborn Whitchurch defence with a clever driving maul going over 20 metres for Phil Brown to score the first try of the game. Alex Warner was to have a torrid day with the boot and missed this conversion.

From the following kick off Bournville seemed to switch off and Whitchurch capitalised on what can only be described as schoolboy defending. Whitchurch stretched the Bournville defence for their fly half to beat 6 tacklers to score their first try. This try seemed to shock Bournville back into their usual style of play and they produced some of their best running rugby. After some initial pressure Whitchurch gave away a kickable penalty with Alex Warner was happy to kick. This was followed by some great phase play, Dan Barratt being on the end of a flowing move to score a try in the corner. Bournville went straight back on the attack as Nick Southern secured a great take from the kick off and his subsequent run through the Whitchurch defence put Bournville on their try line. Paul Cox eventually crossed the line for a deserved score. This left the half time score at Bournville 18–5 in the lead.

Bournville were forced into changes at the start of the second half with Adrian Maynard and Adam Coniff both coming off with head injuries. The second half was only 10 minutes old when a neck injury to Whitchurch’s centre bought the game to a stop. I can report that he has since made a full recovery but at the time the ambulance was called and there was a 20 minute delay before the game resumed on the second team pitch. Whitchurch coped best with the delay and pressurised the Bournville defence from the restart. Bournville were struggling to get back in the game and their usual structured play was nowhere to be seen.

An injury to Carl Colvin led to Matt Dickerson playing in the unusual position of centre with Dean Bick filling in at back row. Whitchurch continued to apply pressure, seeing that they had a chance to take the win against a now out of sorts Bournville team. Whitchurch finally scored with their hooker burrowing over from close range to bring them within 6 points of the lead. Bournville were feeling the pressure but they were able to turn to their experienced players especially Paul Coles, Rod Petty and Paul Cox to lead the team in. After a flowing backs move and dynamic forward play Chris Humphrey scored a try in the corner to seal the win and the bonus point. At the end of the game the referee had had enough of the constant infringements with Nick Southern getting a yellow card for cynical play and Whitchurch having their captain sent off for a punch and a flanker sent to the sin bin for killing the ball. This left the final score 23-12 to Bournville.

After the match the Bournville team were grateful to get their first win at Whitchurch.  Front row stalwart Ian Coles commented, “This was never going to be an easy fixture and I am happy to win. The frustrating thing is that we were unable to play consistently and after the injury break we were unable to show what we are really capable of.”

Next week Bournville face Worcester Wanderers at Bournbrook. They have already met once this season in the cup and Worcester’s young side nearly beat Bournville’s experienced team. Bournville now lie 1 point behind Sutton Coldfield in the league knowing they will need to play their best rugby to push for promotion this year. 
  
Bournville line-up: 1. Paul Coles, 2. Phil Brown, 3. Ian Coles, 4. Simon Homer, 5. Rob Griffin, 6. Matt Dickerson, 7. Adrian Maynard, 8. Nick Southern, 9. Rod Petty, 10. Alex Warner, 11. Adam Coniff, 12. Paul Cox, 13. Carl Colvin, 14. Dan Barratt, 15. Alex Ward, 16. Dean Bick, 17. Pete Nancarrow, 18. Chris Humphrey STAND OUT PLAYERS: Paul Cox & Paul Coles