Market Bosworth edged out in derby
MARKET BOSWORTH 20 LEICESTER FOREST 32 THIS local derby game got off to a cracking start when Leicester Forest ran in a try under the posts from the kick off and were seven points up in seconds.
Things went from bad to worse when within just a few more minutes Bosworth’s number ten, Joe Randon, was taken off with an injury to be replaced by Guy Goodman.
However, Bosworth recovered quickly from the early surprise and were soon in the Forest half and a well worked move got winger Josh Dean over to open the scoring for Bosworth and with Joe Randon returned to the game after treatment the score was level at seven a piece.
It was then Forest’s turn to put on the pressure and attacked the Bosworth line but were stopped by a try saving tackle by captain Harry Milner getting the ball back to the half way. Following up on the clearance kick, Milner collected the ball and proceeded to duck and dive his way over to touch down for Bosworth’s second try, converted by Joe Randon.
The game developed into a scrappy affair for a while with both teams making mistakes until Bosworth’s number eight Ricky Wickwar managed to repeatedly kick ahead and eventually collect the ball and appear to cross the line for a third try only for the referee to accept that Forest’s clearance kick had saved the day for the visitors, a bit of niggle resulted from this decision giving the referee no option other than to show yellow cards to a player from both sides to calm things down.
Forest battled their way to within 15 metres of the Bosworth line and a mistake by the home side at a line out let the Forest winger over in the corner but making it too difficult to convert. Play continued backwards and forwards with both sides putting the pressure on until Forest were eventually penalised close to their own line, a kick to touch got Bosworth even nearer winning the line out and feeding the ball to stand off Joe Randon who neatly slotted the ball between the posts for a seldom seen drop goal.
In the closing minutes of the first half Bosworth were forced to defend their line after several infringements by them gave Forest the advantage but even when Bosworth player Sam Balance was yellow carded for killing the ball in front of the posts Forest failed to add to their score which at half time was 17-12 to the home side.
The second half started with a series of high kicks from full back to full back eventually ending when a long Forest kick went straight into touch resulting in a line out back in their half, followed by a penalty awarded to Bosworth in front of the posts which was kicked by Joe Randon giving them an eight- point lead. From the restart Forest collected the ball from a lucky bounce and managed to penetrate deep into the Bosworth half.
A throw in at a line out about twenty metres out from the Forest line was deemed by the referee not to be straight resulting in a scrum to Bosworth but lost in the ensuing melee and cleared to the Bosworth twenty-two where Forest built up a great passing move through their threes to go over for a try and conversion narrowing the score to just one point.
Bosworth did not appear to be tiring but Forest were now in the ascendancy putting more and more pressure on Bosworth’s defence resulting in another try for them when their winger ran in an excellent try, but it was too difficult for the kicker. Forest were now four points ahead.
The restart kick went direct into touch so play returned to the mid field for a scrum and from that moment play got a bit disjointed until Bosworth’s Joe Randon got to grips with things with some excellent kicks into the Forest half only for play to return to the Bosworth half where the home side started to make a few mistakes with the penalty awarded allowing the visitors to increase their score by another three points.
Now seven points behind, Bosworth tried there hardest to salvage at least a bonus point but Forest found extra strength in the dying minutes of the game, winning a scrum close to the Bosworth line and forcing their way over for an excellent try and an easy conversion to end the match by giving them a 12 point advantage to seal the win 32-20 but not making any changes to their respective league positions.