Lock Harry Dawson won praise from Head Coach Matt Price after his standout performance in Bournville’s 34-31 defeat at Exeter University.
Dawson did not make a first team appearance last season but his consistent performances for the second XV, the Blues, have helped him earn a first team recall.
He made only his second start of the campaign against Exeter and produced an industrious and physical performance that impressed Price.
“I thought Harry was man of the match by a mile. He sacked all of their driving lineouts, he carried well, he made his tackles and worked hard in the scrum. I thought he was outstanding,” Price said.
“He’s been on the periphery, he hasn’t played a lot but he has bided his time and he has come in today and done brilliantly so fair play to him.”
Dawson’s contribution was not quite enough to bring victory for Bournville but it helped secure two more valuable bonus points on the road.
It might have been more but for a dreadful opening six minutes in which the students preyed on mistakes to storm into a 21 points lead which cushioned them against Bournville’s subsequent fightback.
“Once we got a foothold in the game and we got a bit of field position we looked dangerous and our tight play really caused them a lot of grief,” Price said.
“Our scrum was solid and we should probably have got a bit more out of that, particularly when we got a penalty try just before half-time but they didn’t have anyone sin-binned.
“What we have got to do in the first 10-15 minutes of any game is to be positive in our actions by not giving silly penalties away which gives field position to the opposition and not missing tackles.
“It’s been like that for three or four weeks now where we have had a bad start. We have got to have a look at how we mentally turn on and go and action what we are meant to do.
“I said to the boys at full-time that we will pat you on the back and back you for coming back into it and following our game plan.
“Our game plan at half-time was pretty much to play ten-man rugby using 15 blokes and go through the guts of them, keeping the ball for long phases and we pretty much did that. We caused them some real problems.
“But it doesn’t matter what league you are in, if you give someone 21 points start then you are battling.
“If you take that first ten minutes out, we have dominated. We have scored four tries, kept them to 13 points and scored 31 points which is a proper top six side.”
Bournville’s preparations for the match were not ideal as a road accident close to the ground meant the team coach had to be abandoned a mile away and the players had to complete their journey on foot.
But Price refused to use that as an excuse for the poor start to the match. “It was actually quite nice to get out and have a bit of fresh air and have a walk. That didn’t affect anything,” he said.
