Horncastle RUFC v Bourne RUFC Match Report

Bourne travelled to Horncastle in a pre season friendly with a squad of 17 players, 14 of which were forwards meaning a number of unusual selection decisions. Tom Mellor and Patty Danielewski found themselves on the wings , with Jake Appleby making his first start in the Centres. It was a warm day and the match was played over 4 x 20 minute periods in order to give chance for changes.
Bourne were first to score with 7 minutes played when Drew Castle broke the opposition defensive line and ran in from 30 yards to score just wide of the posts , he converted his own try, 0-7. Bourne were showing signs of rustiness after their score with a number of stray passes and silly penalties. Individual forwards had good runs with the ball in hand Wood and Hill making good ground forwards, but then sloppy defence or handling errors stopped any real progress. Penalties were also a problem with Hume alone conceding 6 in the first half an hour. It was through some bad passing by debutant scrum half Harley Giullari to Castle that led to the try , although if the tackling had not been as slack it could have been avoided, the score was on 32minutes and converted to level the scores at 7 all, it stayed this way till the end of the 2nd Quarter.
After a stiff talking to at the break Bourne came out with new vigour, the forwards were now winning turnover ball , with Hiscocks and Donley making a nuisance of themselves at the breakdown resulting in some quick ball , which the backs with some slick interplay creating an overlap, Giullari showed his speed down the wing and raced 40m into the corner for an unconverted try, 7-12. The score gave Giullari confidence and general play in the backs improved, on one move Xanti Xipu came into the line from fullback to take a pass from Castle and score out wide, Castle converted 7-19.
Bourne then got too confident with a number of cases of white line fever, which if the ball had been passed out would have created more trys for the team and make the score line look even better. Pre Season fitness did show as in the final quarter it was all Bourne in attack, which led to the reward of a try for Hume after he was in support to take the pass from Castle, this again was converted, bringing the final score to 7-26.
Overall with the team available this was a good performance, Mabey had a solid performance at prop along with hooker Taylor to make sure scrum ball was won, Taylor also hit his man at the lineout, but lack of movement meant that ball that was won was to slow and not as effective. Work also needs to be done on supporting the player catching the ball from kick off and backs rucking and line of defence, due to the new law changes.
Man of the match – Drew Castle for defence and creative play
Next week Bourne travel to Bingham in the first round of the cup , with hopefully a full set of recognised backs.