Bromsgrove 34 Bournville 33
Bournville suffered an agonising defeat with a last-gasp penalty from Bromsgrove centre Will Tanner despite producing a superb display in adversity at Finstall Park.
Bourns played 65 minutes with 14 men after flanker Adam Shaw was sent off for an alleged head butt on Ben Tibbetts but were just seconds away from recoding a famous victory.
But Mikey Ho was sin-binned for kicking the ball into touch from an off-side position and that gave Tanner the chance to atone for a miss four minutes area by levering over the winning penalty from close to the touchline.
It was hard on Bourns who had played with aggression and flair and, until Ho’s rush of blood, with great discipline in the second-half.
Instead of five points they had to settle for two, having outscored Bromsgrove five tries to four, three of them scored by left-wing Nathan Decalmer.
Decalmer’s opener, after four minutes, came when Jacob Fewtrell found the wing with a lovely crossfield kick and Decalmer then drew the defence, chip over them and regathered to score another of his specials.
Fewtrell added the extras but two penalties from Tanner, the second for the incident that saw Shaw depart, reduced the deficit.
With a man down Bourns were occasionally stretched in defence and Bromsgrove capitalised when left wing Josh Holt powered over.
Bournville’s response was quick and positive with Decalmer rounding off a swift attack with a brilliant acrobatic finish in the left corner.
The lead lasted just three minutes as Bromsgrove lock Will Llewellyn went over for a try which Tanner improved with Tanner adding a penalty in first-half injury-time.
It got worse for Bourns right at the start of the second-half as Bromsgrove reclaimed their own re-start kick, went through the phases and finished it off with an unconverted try.
That left Bourns 14 points adrift but with plenty of time to play and they produced some composed and confident rugby under pressure to silence the large home crowd.
After a couple of close-range lineouts were lost and there was an accidental off-side in a driving maul, Bourns finally got it right with a patient close-range attack which saw centre Adam Collingwood emerge with the ball for his third try of the season.
Ho then sliced open the home defence with a superb break and Decalmer arrived in support to finish in style for his hat-trick try and Bournville’s bonus point.
Fewtrell added his third conversion to level the scores at 26-26 but Bromsgrove went ahead again within three minutes as right wing Jordan Maddocks finished off a sustained attack.
Tanner missed the conversion which kept the door open for Bourns who barged through it with a dominant scrum causing problems for Bromsgrove who lost a man to the sin bin in the collapsed scrums that led to Bourns’ penalty try.
Bourns faced a tense final nine minutes and appeared to have clinched victory when Tanner pushed a kickable penalty left of the target and Bromsgrove then knocked on in the face of aggressive defence.
But there was just time for Bromsgrove to launch one final attack and for Tanner to break Bourns’ hearts with the kick that decided a pulsating local derby.
*Bournville Blues went down 39-26 against Claverdon in their latest Counties Two Midlands West (East) match at Avery Fields.
Through the viewfinder
So close!
As is Bournville’s way, we will respond positively to this setback.
Here are the photos ( I took them, so I post them)
Lee Sullivan
