Bournville Head Coach Alex Grove praised the resilience and adaptability of his side after they began 2026 as they ended 2025 with victory in a Regional One Midlands local derby.
Having put Stourbridge to the sword before Christmas Bournville were pushed all the way by Bromsgrove before they banked a 47-33 bonus point victory.
Grove acknowledged that it was a far from perfect performance by Bournville but there were mitigating circumstances. The early departure of wing Mauro Miller with a back spasm meant that lock Kieran Henderson had to play most of the match out of position in the centre. Henderson ended the match with flanker Adam Shaw as his centre partner after Mikey Ho was injured in a clash of heads with Bromsgrove full-back Rhys Williams.
“I’m slightly disappointed to concede five tries but I thought we were more dominant than the scoreline suggests,” Grove said.
“We didn’t get rewarded for our scrum dominance in the first-half. We got a bit of change out of the referee in the second-half with regards to penalties where we could get field position from which we could catch and drive them. We got a couple of tries from our lineout drive which was pleasing.
“I said to the guys it was far from a perfect performance. It was littered with mistakes but we showed a lot of resilience with guys going off injured and guys covering positions they are not familiar with.
“We challenge them to make good decisions whether they have got the ball or not. I don’t really mind what number they have on the back of their shirt it’s a case of: ‘can you make the right decisions when the ball is around you?’. I thought they did that today.
“I thought the way Kieran adapted was outstanding. Shawsy has done it before and we know what he brings but Kieran in particular looked like a centre. He was making breaks and tackles and he was brilliant.”
