Bournville 20 Stourbridge 13
Bournville showed resilience and adaptability to take the spoils in this local derby which was marred by a serious injury to Cam Smith.
The wing broke his left arm just four minutes into his home debut as he tried to make a try-saving tackle on his opposite number Mark Harrison who had intercepted a loose pass on Bournville’s 10 metres line.
Play was held up for 20 minutes and the teams returned to the changing rooms for a short time during that period while Smith was treated by medical staff. He was helped to his feet and, despite being in considerable pain, was able to walk back to the clubhouse before being taken to hospital for a further assessment.
Smith’s departure meant an early enforced re-shuffle for Bourns with Chris Idehen switching from back-row to centre and Ollie Morris making an earlier-than-intended appearance off the bench. Morris, a summer recruit from Harborne, had been given his opportunity after impressing for the Blues this season and he made another favourable impression here with some penetrating, raw-boned runs.
After last week’s problems in the set piece at Bridgnorth, Bourns dominated the scrums and the lineout, if not perfect, was much more effective and ensured that the backs had much more possession to work with even if squally rain made handling difficult.
Having been seven points down so early – Ricky Aley converted Harrison’s try after the lengthy delay – Bourns reduced the deficit to a point through two penalties from Jacob Fewtrell which ensured that two periods of sustained pressure gained some rewards.
Stourbridge hit back with a penalty from Aley but Bourns cancelled out that score and took the lead when Jonjo Fanning was driven over from a driving maul and Fewtrell added the extras.
There was still time at the end of a very long first-half for Aley to add a second penalty which levelled the scores at the break.
Bournville dominated for long periods of the second-half yet the only try came early on when an attempted clearance kick was charged down on Stourbridge’s 22 and Idehen gathered the ball and scooted away before dotting down under the posts.
Fewtrell added the conversion which proved to be the final score of a wet afternoon.
Stourbridge applied pressure when Bourns gave away a series of penalties but some superb close-quarters defensive work denied them a breakthrough and secured a valuable victory against one of Regional One Midlands strongest sides.
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