Sittingbourne Rugby Club
		Number One For Rugby In Swale

The home side started the stronger of the two teams, running hard through their forwards and winning the physical encounters in the tackle area. The pressure exerted was rewarded twice in the first ten minutes when the HSBC fly half kicked over two penalties, to open up a 6-0 lead. Slowly Bourne began to up their game, however, and were in full flow after 20 minutes, when a series of phases led to the ball being spread wide to winger Allan Chapman, who dived over in the corner. Unfortunately, though, this gave HSBC the spur to up their game and they came straight back down the Bourne end and, after a number of charges were thwarted short of the line, HSBC eventually crashed over for an unconverted try. In a seesaw 15 minutes, it was then Bourne’s turn to get back in the ascendancy and a clinical backs move saw centre, Sam Catlin, slice through the home side’s defence to score close to the posts. With Scott Truss converting, Bourne were now 12-11 up and this was the scoreline at the conclusion of the half. With Bourne having the momentum, the second half started as the first had finished, with Bourne putting the phases together and pressurising the home team’s defence. However, they just couldn’t add to their score and the longer the half continued, the more HSBC got back into the game, and the more Bourne’s game lost it’s momentum. Indeed, having resisted the initial Bourne onslaught, it was HSBC who were next on the scoreboard when their scrumhalf crashed over from a ruck close to the Bourne line. With the try being converted, Bourne were now 6 points down, but still well in the game. However, having lost momentum, Bourne were finding it increasingly difficult to regain it against a very determined home side, who defended strongly and ran hard in attack. HSBC’s next score owed more to luck than judgement, when an attempted penalty kick was dropped over the Bourne line and the chasing HSBC player dived on the loose ball for a converted try. At 25-12, Bourne now looked as if they were running through sand and couldn’t really threaten the home side’s line. Indeed, it was HSBC who finished the scoring with 5 minutes to go, when they created the overlap and their winger went over in the corner. A 30-12 scoreline was extremely disappointing for Sittingbourne and they’ll need to up their game significantly this week at home to Beccehamians.

Man of the match – Ross Cooley (for the second week in succession, Ross ran himself into the ground with his huge workrate and tackle count)

Squad – Cooley, Nutley, Boyes, Prett, C.Nanson, Phelps, McNamara, Sharman, Chambers, Truss, Chapman, Penny, Catlin, Humphreys, R.Nanson, Ford, Rix, Hold