Sequence of home wins, away defeats for Bosworth

MIXED fortunes in the last few weeks have placed Market Bosworth currently in mid-table.

A loss away at Olney followed by a home win against St Ives put a positive feel to the visit to Corby and the ex-steelworks side, Stewart and Lloyds, never a team to underestimate - and so it turned out, as Bosworth went down 31-24.

With five minutes played and a line out and a scrum lost, suddenly Bosworth secured a turnover ball and a powerful push forward enabled second row Oli Green to dive over to open the scoring with Rich Harris adding the two points.

A penalty attempt from Harris quickly followed, but went just wide of the upright.

The referee appeared to be very selective in issuing a yellow card to a Bosworth player when from a spectator’s point of view both sides had transgressed.

The Corby side initially failed to take advantage of the additional player with Bosworth in fact pressurising the Stewarts line only for a Bosworth player to be penalised for not rolling away.

The resultant kick got Stewarts up into the Bosworth 22 and, after winning the line out, they formed a maul and pushed over for their first try, which they failed to convert.

Some in the partisan crowd were spoken to by the referee, an event not seen very often, which quietened things down on the touchline.

On the pitch, however, things livened up with Bosworth backs showing some fearless attacking moves, one in particular saw Will Clarke jink through Stewart’s defence to let a Bosworth winger go over under the posts for Rich Harris to convert successfully.

As half time approached the home side worked their way down the pitch winning line out after line out ending with the inevitable push over try and conversion making the half time score 12 -14.

Within minutes of the restart the Stewart’s forwards joined their backs in an attack involving some good open rugby which eventually found a gap in the Bosworth defence allowing them to score under the posts and kick a simple conversion.

There followed some good entertaining rugby from both sides with Bosworth taking the advantage when number eight Ricky Wickwar forced his way through to score and with Rich Harris on top form they retook the lead.

Within minutes another attack by Bosworth got them to within five metres of the line, a penalty awarded which Bosworth chose to kick and Rich Harris increasing the lead.

It was then Stewarts turn to attack by forming a maul on the 22 and trundling all the way to the line for another of their trademark pushover tries.

However, the kick hit the upright which left the scores level.

In the closing minutes of the game, Stewart’s backs came into their own demonstrating that their backs do score occasionally and put another seven points onto their tally.

The game was altogether a very physical affair with lots of players requiring attention to injuries.

The final score Stewarts and Lloyds 31, Market Bosworth 24 giving Bosworth a losing bonus point.

In mid-table at the moment Bosworth have won all their home games and lost the away ones, scoring more points than three of the teams above them in the league but conceding a lot in the process.

The attack looks good, but the defence need tightening up.