JUNIOR CUP FINAL JUST OUT OF REACH FOR BOURNE

It was never going to be easy though against a Cleethorpes team, with both experience and size in abundance. A complete team effort, combined with putting into practice what had been learnt during the season was what was required.

Cleethorpes kicked off and Bourne showed their intentions straight from the start, Thornburn collected the ball and set up a ruck, the forwards produced a good platform enabling scrum half Castle time to make a break and find Matt Ross who came into the line from fullback , he ran 40m up field into the Cleethorpes 22, offloading to Hume who was in support, Cleethorpes held the ball up 10m out and cleared their lines from the resulting scrum.

This was chased down field and a penalty was given on the 22m line which was converted 0-3.Cleethorpes continued to put pressure on the Bourne line and a resulting 5m lineout led to their forwards pushing over in the corner for a try which was unconverted. 0-8

Any quality ball from the set piece was hard to come by and although being pushed back at a fair rate of speed, Appleby was still able to hook the ball to give Bourne some possession, good skills from No8 Hume and Castle were also allowing reasonable ball for the backs. Things were tight in midfield and the centre partnership of Binns and Ewan Jones were struggling to find any gaps in the defence or get the ball wide. Some good work from Bonham and Rushton led to a Bourne penalty on the 22, which Binns stood up to convert. 3-8.

Cleethorpes continued to keep the ball in the forwards and put together a further forwards drive. Strong tackles from Faversham and Bonham and finally Thornburn who thought he had held the ball up were not enough and a trywas conceded under the posts. 3-15. Bourne was further hampered with Faversham leaving the field early with a shoulder injury, with Paul Mabey coming on as replacement.

Mabey meant business and caught the ball from the kick off to run a good 10 yards through the opposition, Cooke supported him and Neil Wood also had a run, Bourne used their pods to good effect taking play up to the 10m line where a penalty was awarded, Binns converted to bring the score to 6-15.

The kick off was well controlled again with Appleby catching the ball and the forwards protecting it to allow Dixon to keep up field a clearance of some 50m into touch on the Cleethorpes 22m line. Bourne disrupted the lineout with Mabey going through the line to turn over the ball, fast ball from Castle combined with Matt Ross entering the line from fullback created a gap and his pass to Tom Dixon led to a try under the posts, which Binns converted 13-15. The score remained at this until half time.

The second half started as the first with a good catch and clearance from scrum half Castle. Bourne was trying to run the ball and both wings Andrew Dixon and Josh Bonney had good yardage only to be forced into touch. Size in the set piece was still telling and everytime Bourne made progress, Cleethorpes won the ball back in either the scrum or lineout and booted back up field.

Bonham was then harshly yellow carded for being offside at a ruck and Cleethorpes took the 3 points, 13-18. Bourne then received a penalty after good work from Appleby, Wood and Thornburn had moved Bourne downfield, Binns again converted the chance making the score 16-18.

There was 15 minutes left Andy Dixon had a further good run up field , but unfortunately did not have enough room and was bundled into touch. Any Cleethorpes attack was stopped by hard defence from Dixon, Jones and the back row who kept their line well throughout the game to keep the Cleethorpes backs out of the game. Pressure did result in a penalty chance for Binns which unfortunately was missed, just dipping under the posts from 40m out.

Time ran out for Bourne but Cleethorpes knew they had been in a game, Bourne had certainly played the better game and with that extra bit of bulk and size in the team things could have been a lot different.

A recruitment drive is now on to gain more players for the squad next season, they will be running an ‘open come and try it day on the 8th June ‘ when anyone is welcome, no experience necessary. Pre Season training will then commence on 1st July.

Man of the match Tom Dixon

Coaches Quote – Todays performance shows how much we have improved during the season. It is the standard that we wish to start at for next season and to continue improving.

Famous Quote – The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.