Bowdon Opens League Campaign with a Win

For their first League game of the season Bo’ firsts travelled to St. Helens to take on Ruskin Park. The atmosphere in the dressing room was good after the win last week and the work done through the week at training. Uplifting words from coach Swets laid the foundations for what was going to be an attritional battle up front. The sun was shining and a light breeze blowing down the park gave almost perfect conditions for rugby. As the Ref Blew for the start Bowdon received the kick off in what was going to be a hard fought battle. The first few minutes were played between the 10 meter lines with Bowdon showing some early promise but the home defence holding firm. With no real breaks coming for either team , some indiscipline from the home side on 10 minutesaround a ruck in front of the posts, gave Bowdon penalty 25 meters out. Swetman’s boot giving Bowdon a deserved 3 point lead.

From the restart it was back to business – with Bowdon probing down the flanks with Gare, Hartley and Thomas ensuring the Park defence couldn’t settle. Good home tackling keeping Bowdon out. On their few forays forward the Bowdon defence was a match for the Ruskin attack. 17 minutes in and another kickable penalty gave Swets a chance to extend the Bo’s lead, this time he pushed his kick wide. The coach made up for this on 23 minutes when he was successful with another penalty, just outside the home 22 doubling Bowdon’s lead. At the same time Bowdon lost the services Andre, being carried off after a leg injury. The physio indicating that this was his last action of the game. The Bo’ bench now down to two replacements. This was the first of 3 injuries in the game that eventually saw Bowdon playing the last 36 minutes without any replacements.

The half continued as before with Bowdon’s backs just failing to break through the last tackle. And in defence holding firm on the few occasions Ruskin Park broke out of their own half. On 32 minutes the Mitch McGrath pulled up, leaving the field not to return, the bench now down to one! The last few minutes of the half were again played in the middle of the park. As the ref blew for half time, although leading, the visitors should have gone in with a bigger lead than the 6 points they had on the score board.

The second half opened with Ruskin upping their game and pushing Bowdon much more than they did in the first half. Four minutes in a quick break gave the home winger a chance to go in at the corner. A last gasp diving tackle from Robert Wheat was not enough to stop the winger. Unfortunately for Bowdon the replacement centre was badly injured attempting the tackle, breaking both bones in his arm. The Bo bench was now down to 0 replacements - The Physio now with real work - looking after Bob and also keeping 15 player on the park in what was a hard physical game.

A successful Conversion gave Ruskin Park a single point lead. Big Sean now made his appearance as the last man off the bench! With some re-organising to be done it took Bowdon several minutes to settle on a final working formation up front! Initially Sean went into the second row before moving forward - Moto going to Hooker and convey going to Flanker - Sam Pacey moving from Back row to fill in the centre. . Before Bo’ had finally settled on a stable formation Ruskin Park scored a second, unconverted, try giving them a 6 point lead. This spurred Bowdon into action, upping the effort. With 15 minutes to go Bowdon were rewarded with an Alex Hartley try out wide on the left, reducing their deficit to a single point.

For the next five minutes Bo’ were reduced to 14 as fly half Stuart Lindsay left the field to be patched up. The stand in physio doing an excellent job - with the amount of strapping Stuart returned to the field wearing he should be sponsored by Elastoplast!

The last 15 minutes saw the tempo of the game increase and some space now opening up for both teams to try and exploit. With time running out a quick break from a turn over gave Bowdon the breakthrough they needed, Luke Brown diving over wide on the right giving the visitors the lead with only 1 minute left on the clock. The home side had just enough time to restart before the final whistle. Bowdon closed out the game, securing the ball from the kick off, Tim Nicholson booting the ball into touch ending the game.

Although a it was a good win to start the league campaign, the game was marred by the injuries received by several players, not least Robert Wheat. We all wish him well and a speedy recovery, sentiments were echoed by Ruskin Park at the end of the game.

Next week sees the first competitive home game with Sefton the visitors to Clay Lane, kick off 3:00pm.