Bournville sit proudly atop Midlands One (West) for the first time this season after a convincing home victory against Cheltenham North. Director of Rugby Rob Sigley was forced to make changes to the side that defeated Camp Hill the previous week. Adam Cristol made his debut, deputising for unavailable captain Tom McIntosh at open-side. Robbie Harlow returned at scrum-half and was rewarded with the captain’s armband. Sigley himself took up a position on the bench after completing the Great North Run the previous weekend, in a very respectable time of 2 hours 45 minutes.

Bournville started the stronger of the two sides and within 5 minutes fullback Matty Mountford fielded a kick at pace and sliced through the opposition defence. With the covering defence closing, Mountford put in a superbly weighted kick back inside for the supporting Carl Colvin to open the scoring. Alex Warner slotted the extras as Bournville took a 7-0 lead.

Cheltenham North were quickly back in the game when a turn over in midfield left the Bournville defence at sixes and sevens. The resulting Cheltenham North try out wide cut the lead to 7-5.

Indiscipline from the home side prevented them from getting a grasp on the game as they were continually penalised around the ruck and forced back into their own half. Cheltenham North took the lead when one of these penalties was converted from 40m out.

Bournville soon regained the lead when the impressive Colvin outpaced his opposite man and fed the supporting Adam Coniff on the inside and the pacey winger scored under the posts. Warner again made no mistake with the conversion and Bournville regained the lead 14-8.

The story of the first half continued as Bournville indiscipline saw them marched back into their own territory and they were duly punished when Cheltenham North crossed the whitewash for the second time. The successful conversion gave them a 14-15 lead which they took into the break.

At the half, Bournville Head Coach Pete Caves stressed the need for discipline and the home side followed his advice and produced arguably their best 40 minutes of the season so far.

Not long after the restart, Coniff added his second try of the day when he crossed on the right-hand side following strong play by Gareth Clouston. Clouston soon added a try of his own showing great strength to elude two would-be tacklers from 20m out. Warner was successful with both conversions taking the score to 28-15.

Stand-out player Colvin then got his brace when he forced his way over from close range to put the result beyond doubt, Warner again adding the extras.

The icing was put on the cake in the last ten minutes when substitute Iestyn Pratt crossed for two tries of his own. Good hands from Paul Coles and Colvin put Pratt in for his first with Warner making his only mistake of the day with the conversion. Bournville saved the best until last when, from the restart, second-row Steve Smith ran 60m, eluding several defenders before feeding the supporting Pratt who crossed for his second try in as many minutes. The conversion made the final score Bournville 47 Cheltenham North 15.

After the match, Director of Rugby, Rob Sigley commented, “Our second-half display showed that when we concentrate on the rugby and cut out the unnecessary penalties we can produce some superb rugby. We need to make sure our preparation in training this week is excellent as we face very difficult opposition next Saturday.”

Bournville travel to much-fancied Dudley-Kingswinford next week in what will undoubtedly be their toughest fixture yet as they look to maintain their 100% start to their Midlands One campaign.

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