LINCOLN 3RD XV 0
BOSTON DEVELOPMENT XV 20
NLD MERIT 2 EAST
BY JOSEPH VERNEY
PHOTO CREDIT: JEN ROSE-ALLEN, CHLOE COLEMAN-MORLEY & JIM DEARING
A great game of rugby in the mud “played in absolutely the right spirit” saw Lincoln battle hard in a 20-0 home defeat against Boston.
Lincoln started strongly and pushed Boston close in the first 20 minutes before both teams settled into the conditions and the game evened up.
There wasn’t much to separate the two sides until the deadlock was eventually broken five minutes before the break.
Lincoln won the ball on their own 22 and kicked it deep into the opposition half. Boston scrum-half Mason Melbourne came from the full-back position out in the deep to pick it up, before going wide and beating the advancing Lincoln players to score.
The second half continued much the same way as the first, however, it was Boston who held on to the ball to get the scores.
Boston increased their lead within five minutes of the restart after being awarded a penalty near the Lincoln try line. The visitors drove the ball forward, but were held up and Lincoln’s Jak Bollan made a great tackle to keep them out. However, scrum-half Melbourne reacted quickly to pick the ball up and touch it down for an unconverted try.
Boston secured the victory five minutes from time from a scrum just inside Lincoln’s 22. The ball popped out wide to the right before Boston drove it through for Number Eight James Hough to touch down just to the right of the posts. Hough, along with Kieron Trollope, were named as joint man-of-the-match for Boston.
The visitors added one final try before the end after a move wide left set up a try for prop Ryan Cuthbertson.
Lincoln made a final effort in the last five minutes when they were awarded a penalty 10 metres from the Boston try line.
The hosts decided to tap and go and with the line beckoning, and Boston committed to the breakdown, Lincoln went to the wall once too often and knocked on to end the game.
POST MATCH COMMENTS
After the match Lincoln’s 3rd XV Manager Tony Clayton said: “We’ve worked hard and genuinely deserved something from the game. Perhaps, if we had scored first it would have been a different conclusions, but fine margins meant Boston took their opportunities and scored the points.
“Overall though, a great game of rugby in the mud, played in absolutely the right spirit.”
Boston’s Assistant Coach Jim Dearing said: “Every one of the players can be proud of that performance. With only 15 players available, it was always going to be a challenge.
“They made it really difficult for Lincoln to get any momentum or territory in the match by working hard for each other in tough conditions.
“Keeping a team like Lincoln scoreless was especially pleasing and it took some heroic defence in the closing minutes of the match to keep them out.”
