Sutton & Epsom v Bournemouth

The weather was overcast with a pretty chilly wind coming out of the south-west and blowing straight down the pitch, left to right as viewed from the stand. Underfoot, the pitch was surprisingly, at least to your correspondent, dry despite all these ‘rivers of rain’, that have been sweeping across the country and looked in pretty good nick – good drainage obviously. S&E kicked off from left to right as viewed from the stand, i.e. with the aforesaid wind.

Bournemouth go off to a poor start conceding two scores and ‘losing’ two players, fly-half Mike Pope after just three minutes and full-back Alex Sutherland nine minutes later to find themselves 14-nil down after just twelve minutes play against a side that played with much verve and energy that Bournemouth struggled to contain. Those early injuries and consequent shuffling didn’t help but it wasn’t just that. The first score was enough to get the alarm bells ringing and showed what an attacking force S&E were when a clearance kick was ‘run’ back’ through a disorganised defence by winger Ghumra who scored under the posts. Outside centre Bourton had no difficulty in converting to get his side off to a flying 7-nil start. Meanwhile we lost Popey with a ‘hammy’ with Carlos Snell joining a reshuffled backline. Despite some good Bournemouth defence for a period, centre Jamie See weaved his way to score and when Bourton kicked the goal S&E were leading 14-nil after just ten minutes. To add to Bournemouth’s woes, Sutherland, in the acting of kicking off, twisted his ankle and fell down in some pain. Johnson came on to replace him but again the backs were reshuffled with Kingswell going to full-back. Bournemouth soon found themselves going further behind when in a drive off a line-out in their own 22m, S&E turned the ball over and attacked right. The Bournemouth defence was penalised and Bourton found touch to his right just 10m out from the Bournemouth. Yes you can guess, a drive off the line-out by the S&E forwards had a certain inevitability about it and sure enough flanker Moore-Aiono had the try. Bourton kicked the goal and S&E lead 21-nil with just a quarter of the game gone. Not good. S&E might have done better at the restart but dropped the ball as they went right. Bournemouth, however, contrived to knock the ball on at the resultant scrum for an S&E put in. They then managed to pass the ball into touch as they went down the short side and Bournemouth were relieved to have the throw-in at a line-out on the half-way line. In the second quarter, Bournemouth began to get some moves together they were some alarums nonetheless and a last-ditch defence was necessary to prevent S&E getting in at the righthand corner. Hardcastle had a dart, Manning kept the moving going with a typical ‘charge’ supported by new boy Sasu. However, when the ball went wide the final pass, made under immense S&E defensive pressure, couldn’t be taken by Snell with the line at his mercy and the chance went abegging. Nonetheless this was better from Bournemouth and there was a feeling a score before half-time would make things a whole lot better. However, right on half time from a scrum on the halfway line, Moore-Aiono broke right down the short side, fed Munford and the scrum-half scampered in and S&E had their bonus point. Bourton failed to kick the goal but S&E took in a handsome 26-nil lead to mull over their half-time oranges.

Now playing with the wind any hopes of a Bournemouth recovery received a bit of a dent almost immediately. Bourton kicked a penalty from in front of the posts and Bournemouth ‘lost’ Sasu to injury in the first few minutes of the second half. In a reworking of the back row, Hughes on for Sasu, went to No 8, Griffiths went to openside in place of Kenneally who replaced lock Knott, Pidgley on as replacement took Sasu’s place at blindside. Got that? That seemed to work. Bournemouth scored two tries through Hughes, who showed real dynamism in his favoured position, and the new lock, Kenneally. Kingswell, pressed into service as kicker in place of the injured Sutherland, kicked one of the goals to pull the score back to 12-29 to end the third quarter. Try as they might with some good possession rugby Bournemouth, couldn’t break down a determined S&E defence and when the visitors made a mistake they punished it. A dropped ball midfield enabled Bourton to break down field and, despite a brave tackle by new full-back Kingswell, the support was there in the form of hooker Farrell for S&E to score their fifth try of the afternoon. Bourton’s conversion was a formality and S&E had stretched their lead to 36-12. Bournemouth again countered some good periods of possession rugby as before but found the S&E defence in an uncompromising mood. However they were able to capitalize on a series of S&E penalties, when, from a line-out some 10m out, the forwards eventually drove over for Manning to score a quite remarkable sixth try of the season, equalling his previous season’s best. Kingswell kicked the goal to reduce the deficit to 19-36 with less than five minutes of the match. The match ended with S&E driving over from a 5m line-out for Moore-Aiono to score his second and as Bourton’s conversion sailed through the posts, referee Iain Kiy blew for no side, leaving S&E emphatic winners at 43-19.

A chastening afternoon in any respects but you can’t fault the commitment and determination of the players with a number of them new to level of rugby. The upshot was, we stay bottom with Sutton & Epsom moving up one place to 14th. For any of the bottom three to survive now relies on results elsewhere. An unlikely situation I am sure you will agree.

Next week we are away to Dings Crusaders (playing at their new ground for the first time), They are currently lying 11th. KO is 3pm. Check before travelling though.

Doug Warren.