Stourbridge 19 Bournville 41
Bournville produced a brutal second-half performance of power, pace and precision to sweep to an emphatic bonus point victory and complete a season’s double over their local rivals at Stourton Park.
Bourns were only a point in front at half-time after they had gifted their hosts two tries in a nervy first period. But once they eliminated the errors and upped the tempo the result was never in doubt with the majority of a large Christmas crowd heading for the exits long before the end.
This was Bournville’s eighth straight league win and their fourth away from home. More significantly it gave them a haul of 23 points from a possible 25 in a run of five matches in as many weeks, a punishing schedule which was always going to challenge every side in the league.
Three away wins – in the mud at Lutterworth and Newport and on Stourbridge’s artificial surface – in that period show how resilient and adaptable Bournville have become this season.
This was by no means a perfect performance as failure to deal with kick throughs from Stourbridge handed two tries to full-back Ben Freeman. But Bourns produced a sublime passage of sustained aggressive attacking rugby just before half-time which was rounded off by Harry Dawson to give a taste of what was to follow after the break.
Once again the pack were outstanding with Ben Rhodes, Kieran Henderson and Ben Meakin carrying powerfully and the three props – Clarkson McLeod, Jake Thompson and Scott Rudge – being rotated to allow Stourbridge no respite at scrum time.
Behind the scrum centre Henry Harper impressed with his composure on the ball on his first appearance of the season. Although Harper has been playing regularly for Birmingham University he had not trained with Bourns until last week but he slotted straight back in a formed an effective centre pairing with Sam Grimshaw.
Alex Evans was also busy in his first outing of the season although he probably did not enjoy the chill on one of the shortest days of the year having recently returned from the heat of Australia. Evans clearly enjoyed being reunited with his wing partner Nathan Decalmer for the first time in nine months although opposition defences will not share those sentiments.
The first-half was typical of a local derby, fast and frenetic, and Bourns lacked patience and precision at times which meant they were caught trying to play too much rugby in the wrong areas of the pitch.
An early penalty from Jacob Fewtrell was swiftly cancelled out by Freeman’s first try and a conversion from former Bourns man Freddie Morgan although Bournville’s response was immediate and impressive with Decalmer opening up the home defence before he found Reiss Price with an inside pass.
Stourbridge regained the lead when Freeman pounced after the ball bobbled free from another kick through but Dawson’s try and Fewtrell’s conversion settled Bourns at an important stage in the game.
Bourns made a statement of intent early in the second-half with a superbly worked try, instigated by another Decalmer break and sustained by Harper who popped a pass to Rhodes who powered over.
Henderson got the bonus point try after the pack had rumbled Stourbridge back 22 metres with a driving maul from a lineout and he then got a second when a clever kick from Oscar Fawkes-Underwood eluded Harrison and bounced favourably for Bourns.
Decalmer got the sixth try when he nipped over from the blindside of a ruck for probably the shortest range try of his career and although Stourbridge rounded off the scoring with a pick-and-go try from Ethan Shewring with the final play of the match they finished empty-handed which meant they ended 2025 in fourth place, 12 points behind Bournville.
*Bournville Blues were unable to repeat the performance of the first team Lutterworth last month and went down 62-7 to the Leicestershire club’s second XV in their latest match in Counties Two Midlands West (East).
Through the viewfinder
For the lucky none Facebook people here is a link to a few photos from the game. The 1st half was cold but bright. Bournville certainly came awake in the 2nd half with devastating effect, but unfortunately the lights at Stourbridge are worse than ours and a lot of the photos I took weren’t good enough.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🙂
Sully, Bournville’s always friendly (and free) club photographer.
