Loughborough Students 31 Bournville 27
It was another case of so near, yet so far for Bournville who were edged out by the Students in a sometimes chaotic contest at the University ground.
Under normal circumstances two points on the road would be gratefully accepted but in this instance it was definitely a case of three points lost.
Having allowed Loughborough to stroll into a 24-3 lead in a dozy opening 27 minutes Bournville eventually came to life with flanker Louis Mifsud scoring a brace of tries in a nine minute period either side of half-time. Wing Nathan Decalmer continued his bright start to the season with a cheeky score from Owen Williams’ precise crossfield kick and Will Aylen powered over for his first try for the club with the final play of the game to secure the two bonus points.
But numerous other scoring opportunities went begging either with the ball knocked on or not grounded over the line and Loughborough’s decisive try midway through the second period stemming from Bournville twice fumbling possession which meant they found themselves scrabbling back in defence rather than threatening in attack.
With Bournville fly-half Rhys Wiliams hobbling off with an ankle injury and further two lengthy stoppages for serious injuries to Loughborough players, the match lasted well over two hours and Loughborough seldom had 15 men on the pitch, going down to 14, 13 and even 12 for a time.
But Bournville were unable to capitalise which made for a frustrating afternoon for Head Coach Matt Price.
“We created plenty of opportunities, we knocked on over the line and we were held up over the line three times,” he said.
“We have got to execute what we do in training. We train really well, we have a solid game plan but, occasionally, when we are put under pressure we go away from it. We have got to trust it.
“We said all week that Loughborough are a students’ side that come out hard straight away so we had to get into them as soon as we possibly could, whether it was with big carries or big tackles.
“We didn’t do that, we allowed them to dictate the tempo and to dictate where they played and what they did. Unfortunately we were very reactive today.
“It’s frustrating but this group is a really good bunch of boys. They will come back and we will put in a performance where somebody really gets it. We are not a million miles away.
“If we were a group that didn’t have the quality then it would be a very different conversation that we are having. We have the quality, we just need to flick the switch and execute better. That comes with a bit of calmness and clarity, doing what we do, staying on task and not going off task.”
Loughborough could not have done more to make Bournville feel at home with so much purple branding around the pitch that it felt like the match was being played at Cadbury World.
But by the time Bournville had mounted a serious attack, Loughborough already had their try bonus point wrapped up with former Worcester Warriors Academy number eight Theo Maynell powering over after a minute, followed by two tries from centre Connor Cross and blindside flanker Yande Nkonge.
Rhys Williams briefly interrupted the flow with a sixth minute penalty before Mifsud was driven over for his first try late in the first-half.
A repeat effort early in the second reduced the gap to nine points but when Bournville went in pursuit of another try they coughed up possession and right wing Dan Hamilton-Strong won the kick-chase.
With so much stoppage time there was still the opportunity for Bournville to pull off a win and they set up a tense final ten minutes when Decalmer provided a superb finish to Owen Williams’ kick and Jacob Fewtrell added the conversion from the touchline.
Other attacking opportunities were squandered and when Aylen broke free down the right there was not enough time left to re-start after Fewtrell’s conversion struck an upright and bounced out.
