Bourne close the gap

Bourne put themselves right back on winning ways toppling league leaders St Neots. After the disappointing result at Deepings the previous week, and with a number of regular 1st teamers missing, Bourne went into the game accepting they were underdogs but determined to put in a performance. A blistering display on the day saw them run out comfortable 40 - 14 winners in front of a crowd that, not surprisingly, seems to be growing week on week.

In the pack the in-form Chris Greenwood was available at tight-head once again but was joined in the front row by Jason Goodyear and Xanti Tito Xipu making their first appearances of the season; Sion Williams made the move from centre to backrow to cover the absent Dan Smith. In the backs vice-captain Sam Harby was unavailable so player-coach Dave Maudsley slotted into the inside-centre berth and partnered debutant Matt Holden who proved a very useful asset.

St Neots looked a physical and well drilled side but it was Bourne who powered to an early lead with a tempo they managed to maintain for most of the game. Dragging their opponents from breakdown to breakdown across the pitch Bourne were making light work of stretching the St Neots defence and after building a number of phases Josh Lynch eventually crossed to open the scoring. Not long later an inch-perfect cross-field kick from fullback Jack Berry was gathered by Lynch who threw a sublime pass back infield to the supporting Xipu to cross in the corner. Efficient recycling and good handling amongst the Bourne squad then saw winger Jack Lagdon cross in the other corner with some slick finishing. Not to be outdone St Neots came back into the game and after a period of pressure scored themselves. The game came to life at this point with some fantastic rugby by both sides.

It was the home side, though, that seemed destined to take the spoils - playing at speed but maintaining some well structured play Bourne seemed able to break the gainline at will and through fantastic support play and off-loading they piled the pressure on their guests. Through a number of infringements St Neots were penalised as the accuracy of kicker Sam Evison was as high as ever, and eventually they were also reduced to fourteen men after repeated infringements led to a sin binning.

Not surprisingly Bourne looked to be running out of steam on the thirty minute mark and were warned about their own discipline; not heeding the words of the referee replacement prop Ian Knight was sin binned after just five minutes on the pitch. Starting the second half with just fourteen men Bourne found themselves under pressure from the restart and soon conceded a try. From there on in though they dug deep and applied some ferocious defence. Getting back to the full fifteen and using some clever rotation of the bench Bourne got their second wind and started to dominate once again. Berry, showing some of his scintillating form from last season danced his way to the line to finish another passage of play and Lynch crossed for his second after a well worked move by the Bourne backline. Throughout, Evison continued to slot his goals taking the lead further away from St Neots.

Coach Maudsley was delighted with the win, "I'm thrilled with the result! When we're bad we're average, but when we're good we're very good. The stand-out player for me was Josh Lynch, but everyone did their fair share. Whilst our attacking game, particularly our kicking and off-loading, was good our defence was solid and that was the difference. We were tested in the second quarter but made a point of keeping our discipline which we didn't do last week."

With Deepings failing to produce a side to travel this weekend they dropped to seventh in the league while Bourne climbed to second - with a cup fixture between the two at Bourne on Saturday the home side will hope to prove their previous meeting was nothing more than a blip. Maudsley said: "Deepings are a good side and deserved their win last week, but our result over St Neots and respective league positions suggest that we're better on a more consistent basis. They seem to have us psychologically but we need to treat this like any other game and concentrate on being at our best for the full eighty minutes".