BOURNE MAKE HARD WORK OF WIN IN LINCS CUP

With numerous changes in fixtures a number of regular 1st team players were unavailable, fortunately for Bourne both Team Fiji and a couple of promising colt prospects were available, meaning Bourne could still field a strong team. Skegness play in an equal league as Bourne but in the Northern section, so the teams were going to be fairly evenly matched.

The game was kicked off by Bourne in reasonably good conditions and was chased down by Appleby, Lindley and Thomas, good pressure was put on the Skegness forwards with Bonham managing to turn the ball over. The forwards drove forward with Mabey and Cooke both making good yardage , before Thornburn fed the backs, a move between Dixon and Binns took the team up to just inside the 22 , where a scrum was awarded in favour of Bourne. A good stable platform was made by the Bourne forwards with clean fast ball available Thornburn gave his backs quick ball which Dixon passed to Binns who off loaded to No8 Koro who had stepped into the line he beat his man and gave to fullback Lagdon who finished the move under the posts for a debut try, Binns converted. 7-0.

A good loud call from the restart by Mabey followed by a drive forward gave a good platform for the forwards and Dixon kicked ahead with the wind behind him forcing Skegness to kick and clear their lines. The Bourne lineout was working well with Lindley taking the accurate throws from Appleby cleanly giving good ball for the back to work with. The team were working their way back up field and a scrum on the 22 was picked up by Koro he passed to Binns at contact and Jordan – Boddey look to have the speed to score in the corner, only to be stopped by a good Skegness cover tackle. Skegness again kicked up field only to find Dixon who fielded the kick, he passed to Binns who in turn gave to Vakedewa who fed along the line for Rossi to score a well worked backs try in the corner, Binns used the wind to bring his kick round to add the extras 14-0. Bourne were sticking to their game plan and shipping the ball wide at every opportunity, Rossi and Jordan – Boddey both had good runs as Bourne made use of the good possession. Mellor was now on in the front row, with Bonham exhausted after his first outing as a prop, moving back into 2nd Row at the expense of Mabey who had been solid in the first 20. Confidence got the better of the backs though, when Binns tried a blind inside pass to Lagdon, it was intercepted and Skegness scored under the posts themselves. 14-7.

A forwards drive of a good 40 yards , demonstrated what the team had learnt about keeping control of the ball, Wood , Cooke and Thomas took it in turns moving the ball forward under the guidance of scrum half Thornburn who when the drive finally stopped passed to Dixon, through Binns and on to Vakedewa to score under the posts, Binns added the extras. 21-7. Now Bourne had regained control of the game, weather conditions deteriated with rain falling making handling difficult. Numerous times the ball was knocked on by both teams resulting in numerous scrums. At one close to half time Koro again picked up and went on a run , support came from Lagdon from the fullback position who in turn passed to Jordan – Boddey, when he reached contact, Bonham drove the ball on a further 10 yards, offloading to Binns who fed Vakedewa to score out wide, the conversion was missed on this occasion, half time score 26-7.
For the start of the 2nd half the rain was now torrential and for any decent rugby to take place was not going to be easy, a lot of play was made around the centre of the park with no team really going anywhere. Bonham and Thornburn and Thomas were off the field ably replaced by Mabey, Nassau and Nabuta, a forward drive led by Mabey and Cooke move the ball towards the Skegness line, with scrum half Nabuta diving over from close range to score an unconverted try. 31-7

A lack of concentration and the attempt to play champagne rugby in wet conditions led to another break away try for Skegness which was scored under the post, 31-14. Bourne should have scored when a break by Rossi was kicked ahead and he was took out after the ball had been kicked, the referee signalled an advantage which never came , in fact Skegness ran the length of the pitch to score again despite the attempts of Jordan – Boddey and Binns to catchthe opposition. 31-21.

One further opportunity was given for Bourne to score from a training ground move in the lineout, Mabey made the fishing call which after movement around was a front ball from Appleby to Wood, unfortunately Wood knocked on otherwise it was a certain try and I am sure will be successful in the future. Danielewski came on for the last 20 minutes and showed a good account of himself in a game with no further scores, Mabey was always shouting encouragement to the forwards and led by example when on the field.
Although a win and a more controlled approach to the game , to let in 2 trys late on in the game was disappointing. Next up is Old Newts away in the league who will be a much harder prospect

Man of the match – Jack Lagdon , a confident debut.