Spirit and guts too much for hosts Ollerton

Midlands 4 East (North)
Michael Baldwin.Michael Baldwin.
Michael Baldwin.

Ollerton 31 Boston RFC 39

Boston Rugby Club produced a performance full of spirit and guts to come away with a win at Ollerton, writes John Fletcher.

The five points picked up saw them move up to fifth in the league standings.

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Despite opening the scoring in the first minute through a Matthew Bray penalty, Boston were uncharacteristically missing their first-time tackles and making some basic errors, resulting in Ollerton scoring a try after 10 minutes to take the lead.

A speculative kick downfield and a cruel bounce of the ball in favour of Boston saw supporting back-row forward Luke Fowler give a pass for winger Dan Piggins to score under the posts.

The conversion by Bray put Boston back in front.

Loose play by the Blue and Whites saw Ollerton close the gap to 12-10 before the first of several yellow cards for both teams gave Boston a man advantage – which they seized upon.

Piggins scored his second try, converted by Bray.

With Boston in the ascendancy in the last 10 minutes of the half they added a further penalty from Bray and were awarded a penalty try to enter half time 27-12 ahead.

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In the interval head coach Ashley Coates brought on Sam Hughes for Fowler.

The visitors made the perfect start to the second half when, after six minutes, winger Jaron Cowern received the ball outside his twenty-two and set off on a mazy, jinking run to outpace the opposition backs and score in the corner, making it 32- 12.

Ollerton quickly replied to narrow the deficit, and when centre Michael Baldwin received a yellow card after 20 minutes, the momentum swung back to the home side.

The last 20 minutes would be edge-of-the-seat entertainment for both sets of supporters as yellow cards and a disallowed try saw the scoreboard move to 32- 26.

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At this point fresh legs were used as Anthony Buckberry, Matt Coley, Kyle Turley and Bruno Hall were all brought on.

A John Hummel try extended Boston’s advantage to 39- 26.

However, in the last minutes of play, and with added time looming, Ollerton scored again to see the scoreboard move to 39-31.

Two further yellow cards for captain Lewis Eldin and hooker Paul Beard meant Boston had to defend their line, which they successfully achieved to record another important away win and move the team one place up the league table.

Boston’s man of the match was centre Michael Baldwin.

BOSTON: Hough, Beard, Griffin, Sharpe, Eldin, Fowler, Scupham, Kippax, Cook, Bray, Baldwin, Hobbs, Piggins, Hummel; replacements: Hughes, Hall, Turley, Buckberry, Coley.

Friendly

Newark Thirds 56 Boston Development 7

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Boston’s Development XV secured a last-minute fixture, travelling to play Newark.

And despite being competitive for a long period of the game, especially in the first half, Newark’s stronger players saw the visitors lose out, especially in the second half.

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