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

Bourne Rugby Club kicked off 2023 with a spectacular last minute victory against Market Bosworth, courtesy of a Josh Lynch try.

Having come close to victory at home to Market Bosworth earlier in the season, Bourne travelled to Leicestershire confident they could cause an upset against their third-placed opponents.

A wet and windy day meant that fast flowing rugby was going to be at a premium, which played into the physical Market Bosworth’s hands.

They started the Counties 1 Midlands East (South) match the stronger of the sides and, despite holding out inside their own 22 for nearly 10 minutes, Bourne’s defence eventually gave way and the home side were able to slide in for an unconverted try and a 5-0 lead.

This appeared to be the wake-up call that Bourne needed and their forward pack began to grow into the game and regularly make yards.

Fly-half Liam Shields got the away side on the front foot, taking the ball to the gain line and managing to find holes for centre Adam McHugh and wingers Jamie Colangelo and Lynch to exploit.

Bourne themselves were now able to put pressure on the Market Bosworth try line, which culminated in Colangelo crashing over in the corner.

Captain Sam Evison added the conversion from the touchline and nudged Bourne into the lead at 5-7.

The momentum of the match had now well and truly shifted in Bourne’s favour.

They were attacking with precision and defending with ferocity, allowing flanker Sam Thornburn to make a nuisance of himself at the breakdown and win numerous penalties for the away side.

Shields made the most of these penalties and kicked Bourne into dangerous areas of the field.

Despite being the smaller side, Bourne began to dominate the contact area, and Lynch managed to force his way through four tackles to dive over the line for another Bourne try. Evison converted again, taking the score to 5-14.

Evison then added a penalty before Market Bosworth ended the half on a high, taking advantage of some Bourne ill-discipline to kick a penalty and bring an end to the first period with the score at 8-17.

It is by no coincidence that Market Bosworth are placed third in the league and, following their half-time team talk, they flew out of the blocks and made life difficult for Bourne.

They scored the first points of the second half with a penalty in front of the posts to move the score to 11-17.

Both sides now were flying into every collision with real vigour, but it looked for a while as if Market Bosworth's experience and size advantage may give them the upper hand in the match, especially when they scored another try, this time converted, to go into the lead at 18-17.

Bourne did manage to open their second-half account through another Evison penalty but, with 10 minutes to go, Market Bosworth looked to have secured the winning try as their winger slid over in the corner to give them a 23-20 lead.

Bourne, however, had been in a similar situation before when they eventually defeated Stamford with a last minute kick in November and were not willing to go down without a fight this time either.

Prop Conor Kelly and second-row Sam Harby carried the ball with passion and aggression to push Bourne into the home side's half and force a penalty in kicking range.

Not wanting to accept a draw, Shields kicked Bourne into the corner where a precise line-out throw from Harry Thornburn gave Bourne clean front-foot ball to attack with.

Despite some brutal tackles flying in from Market Bosworth, Bourne still had the ball in hand just 10 metres away from the try line when the 80 minutes ran up on the clock.

In the defining moment of the match, fly-half Shields shot over to the blindside, releasing Lynch down the sideline who then smashed his way through the covering tackle to score in the corner and snatch an extraordinary 23-25 victory from the jaws of defeat.

This fantastic win has opened Bourne’s account for 2023 and sets them up well for what will be an important few months as they look to push their way up the table.

In what was a complete team effort, it was perhaps fitting that the man of the match award was shared.

Shields dictated the Bourne attack from fly-half and Josh Lynch terrorised the Market Bosworth defence at winger and then at centre, culminating in his match-winning try.

Bourne’s next match is at home to Northampton Casuals on Saturday.