Winning start for Bosworth in 2020

MARKET Bosworth got back into winning ways again at Cadeby Lane this week in a very exciting game against Northampton Casuals.

With one or two changes to the line-up due to injuries in the last game and a couple of positional changes it looked as though Bosworth would take a while to settle down but that was not the case.

Within a couple of minutes Bosworth got into the Casuals twenty-two, won a penalty, then the line out and the ensuing scrum to let winger Will Hurst touch down in the corner to open the scoring.

As the visitors were several places below Bosworth in the league and had recently lost by ninety odd points against Forest it looked as though this was the start of another rout. However, within a couple of minutes, Casuals had mounted an excellent three quarter move and went over to level the score and then repeated the same attacking move straight from the restart to go over again to take the lead.

Bosworth were having trouble in getting possession from the line outs but winning the scrums against an older and heavier pack and from the back of the scrum the versatile Tom Hillier, at scrum half, was able to feed Will Hurst who touched down under the posts to level the score again, with Mitch Culpin’s conversion adding the two points to put Bosworth in the lead.

Harry Milner was next to impress with a solo effort from the twenty-two sprinting through the opposition defence to add another five points to which Mitch Culpin added the conversion.

Within another couple of minutes left winger Will Hurst was fed the ball and ran in for a touch down under the posts for his hat trick and Bosworth’s fourth for the bonus point and Mitch Culpin adding the conversion.

For a time, Casuals looked as though they might have got themselves together and were able to kick their way out of the in goal area to the half way line only for Joe Randon to keep the ball in play and for it to be fed through the backs to let Will Hurst go over again for his fourth try. By the time the half time whistle went the score had risen to Market Bosworth 31 and Northampton Casuals 10 and another high scoring defeat seemed to be on the cards for the Casuals.

The second half began with the visitors dominating possession and scoring early on with a try under the posts and a conversion.

But the unstoppable Will Hurst was the final link in a three quarter move initiated by a Harry Milner break which let Will go over for his fifth try and Culpin’s fourth conversion of the game.

Several times this season the young Bosworth side have come up against more experienced and heavier sides and Casuals were one of these and used this knowledge and weight to get one of their second row forwards over to start the climb back.

This was quickly followed by more excellent play by the Casuals threes finishing it off with a touch down for their scrum half narrowing the difference to only seven points. A vision of Casuals snatching victory from the jaws of defeat was soon wiped away when Harry Milner produced one of his storming runs to open the gap again but not to be outdone Casuals came back and added another seven points to their tally to make it that seven point difference again but with seconds left on the clock Conor Steptoe, the Bosworth wing forward, was credited with a touch down at the bottom of a heap of players to make sure of a victory for Bosworth.

This was a very entertaining game where the final score was Market Bosworth 50 and Northampton Casuals 38 and so lifting Bosworth to fourth place in the league and only seven points off the top spot.

This week’s game is away at Northampton Old Scouts followed by a free week and then St Ives at Cadeby Lane on January 25th.