Bourne Rugby Club beat Oakham in Counties 1 Midlands East (South)

Bourne Rugby Club's impressive start to life in Counties 1 Midlands East (South) continued on Saturday as they defeated local rivals Oakham 55-17.

However, the anticipated close clash between these two old friends and rivals did not live up to expectations for the Rutland side.

The Oaks made the short trip with a team ravaged by injury and unavailability, showing seven changes from the previous week's line-up against high-flying Vipers.

Conditions were set fair for running rugby but, from the first scrum, it was apparent that without their front row regulars Oakham were going to struggle - conceding a penalty at the first put in.

As they did the week before against Northampton Casuals, Bourne flew out of the blocks quickly and had a converted try under their belt before Oakham knew what had hit them.

They moved the ball wide quickly to give them an overlap before flying winger Jamie Colangelo stepped inside the full-back to dot down underneath the posts for a try which was converted by captain Sam Evison.

Bourne continued to make inroads, repeatedly breaking through Oakham’s defensive line through strong carrying by centre Adam McHugh and winger Josh Lynch.

Good cover defence from the Oaks prevented another score but relief was only short-lived with Bourne regaining possession, quickly moving the ball wide to increase their lead to 14-0 with a converted try.

It was prop Conor Kelly who crossed for Bourne, registering his first league try for the club, as Evison converted from out wide.

The home side continued with their highly effective game of offloading in the tackle, sucking the Oakham defence in before again going wide and scoring to make it 21-0 through JJ Roberts' try.

Oakham hit back but a kick through was touched down over the line by Bourne for a drop out.

Further pain was inflicted on the visitors as the home side regained the drop out and then cruised in for another try from McHugh under the posts which made it 28-0 with still 10 minutes to go until half-time.

The first half was played out with Oakham trying desperately to create something but struggling to put together any cohesive attacks.

Oakham began the second half the stronger of the two sides, and caught the home team napping, allowing them to score a try in the early moments of the half as a kick through by Jonno Milnes was chased down by flanker Henry Bird for an unconverted try.

This proved enough of a wake-up call for Bourne to return to the form they found in the first half.

They swiftly responded by regaining the ball from an Oakham scrum before combining inter-passing and forward drives that created another excellently converted try as Tom Dixon continued his fine scoring record for the season as Evison added to his tally to take the score to 35-5.

The home side extended their lead 10 minutes into the second half with a superb penalty from halfway by their excellent kicker Evison.

Lynch was the next man on the scoresheet for the home side, weaving and bashing his way through the Oakham defence with typical brutality.

The away side didn’t surrender, however, and managed to build some momentum of their own on Bourne’s try line.

It had been a tough afternoon for the Oaks but, to their credit, they did not buckle and gave it everything in the last 15 minutes to try and get something out of the game.

They attacked from the kick-off, making ground down the wing before a series of forward drives saw flanker Conor Stuart break through to score a well taken try which was converted by Milnes.

Unfortunately for Oakham, this momentum did not last long as Bourne knocked over two penalties.

With five minutes to go, the Oaks scored again as centre Milnes put in a great tackle on his opposite number before regaining and offloading the ball to support players who made good ground before Sam Weatherall outflanked the remaining Bourne defence to score.

But, by this point, the win in Bourne’s favour was inevitable and a second try from Roberts secured a fantastic day for the home side.

Evison converted and took his points tally to 20 for the afternoon as Oakham saw their hopes of salvaging a bonus try point from the game dashed late on.

The referee penalised Bourne twice in succession to give the visitors a final line-out close to the home line but, with the throw not straight, the chance was gone as the referee blew for full-time.

It had been a tough afternoon for Oakham, losing more players to injury during the game but, despite the scoreline and being outplayed by a very good Bourne team, their heads did not drop.

Oakham head coach Tim Andrews said: "Having taken a depleted side, those involved were heroic in staying in the fight in almost claiming a four try bonus point."

Bourne visit ninth-placed St Ives on Saturday while the Oaks are back in action at the Showground when they host Bugbrooke who are in sixth spot.