Bournville Head Coach Alex Grove paid tribute to ‘Mr Reliable’ Jonjo Fanning after the number eight made his 100th appearance in the 35-22 Regional One Midlands victory over Bridgnorth at Avery Fields.
Fanning was presented with an engraved drinks flask before the match to mark the occasion and was given the honour of leading out the team before kick-off.
He made some of his trademark powerful carries before he took a knock to the head early in the second but was carried from the pitch on the shoulders of his team-mates Harry Dawson and Clarkson McLeod as Bourns celebrated a seventh straight win.
“I’m delighted that Jonjo got his 100 milestone. A hundred appearances at one cub doesn’t happen very often these days,” said Grove.
“Jonjo has shown a huge amount of loyalty, dedication and resilience. He’s Mr Reliable. He offers us something that other don’t with his ability over the ball and his carrying which are outstanding.
“Unfortunately, he took a took a knock today but I think he’s ok.
“He’s a quiet man off the field, the trouble is he says a lot on the field.”
Although Bourns banked another bonus point win they were made to work very hard for it by a lively Bridgnorth side who were dangerous on the counter-attack.
“I thought Bridgnorth made it difficult for us and they put us under pressure but we made a lot more mistakes than we normally do,” Grove said.
“Certainly, it undermined some of the quality of our play in the first-half. There were pockets of play – the last five minutes before half-time – which were outstanding. Our ability to keep the ball, multi-phase in attack and then score from a driving lineout were particularly impressive.
“Also the way we scored our second try which came from a Bridgnorth error immediately after they had scored. Our ability to capitalise on that error and put them away was very pleasing.
“In the last three weeks or so we’ve been manging games particularly well, generally running at the right times and kicking at the right times. Today I wasn’t sure that we got that balance right in the second-half.
“With the wind behind us and the lead we could have spent more time in their third and kicked a little bit more, but we often make quite a lot of yards when we keep the ball in hand.
“We weren’t particularly accurate today and our mistakes allowed them into the game. But we got five points and we move on.”
