Clifton 54 Bournville 14
Bournville’s away day blues continued with a heavy defeat against a well-drilled and powerful Clifton side at Station Road.
In many ways this was a carbon copy of the previous meeting between the clubs in March when Bournville travelled with a weakened side, were forced into a late change on the morning of the game and struggled to contain Clifton’s powerful strike runners.
In this case the late change was caused by Kurtis Payne’s enforced withdrawal after he tested positive for Covid which meant that Head Coach Matt Price had to name himself as a replacement.
Price was an unused replacement at Chester last season but here he made a cameo appearance for the final 15 minutes of the game, his first rugby since he started at Peterborough Lions in November 2019.
For the first time this season, Bournville failed to collect a point away from home and the search for a first win of the campaign on the road will continue into the New Year. Seven of the 13 matches in the second half of the season are away including five more down the M5.
Although Bournville struggled to get competitive, this was not a performance without its positives.
Joe Jenkins, Rob Knox and Louis Mifsud carried strongly, Adam Shaw worked tirelessly in the loose and Charlie Whorrod, on loan from Coventry, showed a couple of nice touches.
Wing Dan Rundle marked his return from an ankle injury with a try a minute after he had come off the bench and Freddie Morgan banged over three first-half penalties.
But the difference between the sides was Clifton’s support running. Whenever they made a break they had men in support and attacking options which allowed them to run in eight tries, evenly divided between the halves.
Clifton also had big and powerful forwards, none more so then blindside flanker Freddie Myatt, which meant Bournville became over-worked in defence as the match progressed.
But there were just three points between the sides after 30 minutes with Morgan’s penalties keeping Bournville in touch after Clifton wings Luke Daniels and Alex Kilbane had crossed for tries.
But a burst of two tries in a four-minute period just before the break secured the try bonus for Clifton and, effectively, their seventh successive league win.
Centre Matt Smith crossed after hooker Tom Anderson had carved a huge hole in the defence and Anderson then ploughed over himself close to the posts.
Bournville, to their credit, tried to play rugby with a try bonus point their minimum objective in the second-half.
But a bold decision to run the ball from behind their own line ended in an attack that broke down on halfway and Myatt powered over from 50 metres.
Rundle’s try, after a break by Harry Dawson, disrupted Clifton’s flow, but only temporarily.
Home captain Mitch Spencer bagged a brace of tries, the second after Bournville were shunted backwards at a scrum and Spencer dotted down when the ball touched the goal-line.
The eighth try, and Kilbane’s second, brought up the half century with the final play of the match when Bournville were stretched in defence.
To complete a tough afternoon on the road, Bourns lost fly-half Joe Nellany with a shoulder injury and skipper Ben Meakin with a head injury both inside the first 25 minutes.
*Bournville Blues got back to winning ways with a 35-5 victory over Pershore in Counties Midlands Three West (South) at Avery Fields.
Centre Matt Serrell-Cooke marked his debut with a brace of tries with scrum-half Reiss Price and tighthead prop Bhairaj Raj also crossing.
Fly-half George Ayliffe converted three of the tries and also landed three penalties.
