Bournville Forwards Coach CJ Osazuwa wants more of the same from his players after a superb first-half performance laid the foundations for a 31-7 victory over first-time visitors Drybrook at Avery Fields in Regional One Midlands.
Bourns used a strong downfield wind intelligently, produced some stunning handling and combined aggression in attack with solid defence to wrap up the try bonus point by half-time.
“That first-half is probably as good as we have played at any point this season. We were absolutely brilliant. We went from post-to-post, we made the right decisions whether we hit from the front or out the back,” Osazuwa said.
“We had dominant carries and really good rucks. That’s just a focus. That’s what we can do and that’s what we have not done enough of this season.
“If we can do that for 60 minutes – because in reality we are not going to do it for 80 minutes in any game – then we are going to be where we need to be.”
Unfortunately Bourns were unable to replicate the first-half efforts after the break with a try from hooker Ben Rhodes four minutes into the second-half proving to be their fifth and last.
Bournville got on the wrong side of referee Jamie Hanson, lost Jake Thompson and skipper Ben Meakin to the sin bin in quick succession and conceded a try to the final play of the match when they were a man down.
“I actually didn’t think the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game. We did a lot of good stuff especially in the first-half when we had the wind in favour but we played with the wind very cleverly.
“When the wind wasn’t with us in the second-half we weren’t quite as clever as we should have been.
“There are always learnings. It’s difficult to put your finger on what went wrong in the second-half, but if I am grabbing a couple of things I think our discipline let us down and I don’t think the referee did us any favours.
“But we gave him the opportunity to come into the game he became probably the most prominent person in that second-half.
“We always talk, as every coach will, about keeping the ref on your side. This game is about the picture you paint to the referees and obviously we weren’t painting the right pictures today.
“But that’s comes down to us taking more ownership of the ball. We saw that in the first half we just needed to play a few more phases in the second-half.
“We talked about not kicking the ball but when we did we kicked quite poorly and I don’t feel we were patient enough.
“But five points and 31-7 is a scoreline that we would take every week.”
