Bowdon 2nd XV 71 - 17 Whitchurch 2nd XV

As the team unpacked kit bags last opened in late April, brushed up on the new laws and enquired about the club’s pre-season programme (luckily, Alex Bright had represented the squad at these sessions, and was able to provide a comprehensive summary), Captain Fletch roused the team with his remaining motivational material not previously expended on the team Facebook post earlier in the day. With this, the boys were ready for an afternoon of champagne rugby in the Sunshine.

Luckily, Whitchurch had got the memo, and arrived late with 14 players. As they struggled to run the effects of the long journey from Shropshire out of their legs, Bowdon capitalised with four quick tries, with forwards and backs combining to exploit the holes in the Whitchurch defence.

20 minutes of open, running rugby in the heat was obviously too much for Bowdon (maybe pre-season would have been a good idea after all?) and Whitchurch came back into the game through some good positional kicking and strong running forwards. Bowdon struggled to get their hands on the ball, and when they did made errors which gifted possession back to their opposition. A solitary try for the Whitchurch 8 was the only score of this quarter of the game.

After a Stevie Harrison half-time rollicking (and some of that magic blue isotonic drink), Bowdon started the 2nd half as they started the first, and started to carve apart a tiring and depleted Whitchurch defence to score a hatful of tries. The highlight was a perfectly weighted chip through from Chris Hares which was collected by Nick Foster (I think) to canter under the posts. Full credit to Whitchurch who stuck at it right to the end (and hung around for a few beers afterwards).

In all, a fairly gentle start to the new season. Nice to get some early points on the board, but stiffer tests will surely come in the coming weeks.

Tries came from (I think) Jack Lenihan-Smith, Nick Foster, Clem, Chris Fletcher, Willie Landman, Paul Mosely and Alex Bright.

2nd XV: Fletcher; Convey, Wilkins, Loughenbury, Rice (L), Dilworth, Landman, Stirling; Hares, Harrison, Lenihan-Smith, Mosley, Bright, Horton, Foster : Reps: Clem, Rowbotham

Report by -
Clive Wilkins