Bournville battlers stay on track despite yellow peril

DESPITE going down to 12 men at one stage, Bournville boosted their survival bid last weekend with a dramatic win over fellow National 2 West strugglers Barnstaple.

Bournville escaped a card-fest in Devon which saw Max Craven, Samuel Herrington, Callum Thompson and Rhys Williams shown yellow and Ethan Waker a first half red card.

Nevertheless, Mitch McGahan’s troops pulled together for a hard fought win courtesy of Karl Johnson’s brace that leaves them two points from safety with a game in hand on 12th place Barnstaple.

He said: “We don’t like to make it easy for ourselves in this current campaign. We were playing the territory game quite well in the first half but just couldn’t get a foothold in the game with the lack of numbers. Fair play to the boys, despite playing most of the game a man down at least we stuck to the task quite resolutely defensively and our scramble in the last 10 is something the boys should be proud of.

“We knew with the game in hand and playing teams around us that it was very much in our hands and we’ve taken the first step on that. We’ve got seven more games to go in order to reach our goal.” Bournville were playing in National Two North last season but due to the RFU’s restructuring they’ve found themselves in the West this season – a division McGahan, left, feels is much tougher.

He said: “Coming down the leagues we’ve noticed a change in playing style. The northern league bar a couple of teams are very forward orientated, they would play through their forwards and look to get a foothold in the territory and possession.

“In the National 2 West league, you’ve got quite an even balance with some good teams who can chuck it about and cause us some damage and when they get their attacking game on can break up some points pretty quickly.

“It has been a learning and settling in period for the club in general, going down to places like Clifton and Redruth seeing what established National League clubs look like it’s given our committee food for thought for what we could be doing as a rugby club to help support the rugby programme that the club is operating.”