Oundle are chasing a treble in the big local derby against Borough

It’s the big local derby in Midlands Division One on Saturday as Borough entertain Oundle at Fengate (2.15pm).

And the home side will be desperate to regain local bragging rights after losing the two previous clashes between the two sides.

They were pipped 16-13 at Oundle in September and in February were walloped 40-14 at Occupation Road.

Oundle need a win to put their promotion push back on track after losing 17-6 at home to Paviors last Saturday.

Borough are also on the fringe of the promotion race so there’s everything to play for.

The Paviors loss ended a run of eight wins for Oundle while Borough have gone nine (eight wins and a draw) unbeaten.

Last Saturday they were at home to Old Northamptonians and they gained revenge for a 12-5 defeat suffered in Northampton back in September when winning 24-17.

It wasn’t one of Borough’s best performances but they were delighted to chalk up another bonus-point victory.

“To be honest it was a scrappy game,” said Borough vice-chairman Archie Bennett. “Both sides hadn’t played for three weeks and were a little bit rusty.

“The win sets us up nicely for the Oundle game.”

Borough fell 7-0 in arrears after 15 minutes but bounced back immediately with an individual try from winger Louis Smedley, who raced 40 metres to touch down under the posts. Matt Newman added a conversion to make it 7-7.

Not long after, Smedley crossed again and then on the stroke of half-time Michael Bean raced in for Borough’s third try. Newman converted that one and it was 19-10 to Borough at the break.

ONs closed the gap to 1917 early in the second half but then skipper Stuart Day scored for Borough after great work by Chris Sykes to make the final score 24-17.

For Borough, who were without their two key back row players Rob Mould and Zak McClure, there were eye-catching displays by second row John Thompson, scrum-half Ross Chamberlain, flanker Luke Swindells and Smedley.

Borough skipper Stuart Day scored a try.