Matt Armstrong took his Wellingborough A Team to a wet and windy Stewart and Lloyd’s rugby ground hoping to carry their strong league form into the Floodlit Cup Competition against Oundle RFC.

From the Kick off Boro started strong with Liam ‘Club Colours’ Coombs leading the way with some early breaks putting Boro deep into Oundles half and applying early pressure for Andy Fordham to run in the first try from all of two yards with only 5 minutes gone in the game. This lead the way for Boro to up the tempo of the game and from the next kick off Boro moved the ball wide, Matt Armstrong picked up from a ruck and passed to Craig Danns whos quick feet saw him dance round two defenders and pass to Shaun Mackie 5 metres out who dived over for the points, both tries were not converted.

Oundle kept pressing Boro but the forwards kept turning over the ball and making opportunities out of nothing. The third try saw ‘Club Colours’ Coombs make another break in midfield only to be tackled by the fullback, ‘Club Colours’ Coombs managed to pop the ball of the floor to Fordham who took on another tackler and offloaded to Ben Heffernan who scored close to the posts making it an easy conversion for Jon Redman (Keg).

Boro were 17 points up after 15 mins and the crowd could sense an onslaught but with the wind getting stronger and Oundle keeping the ball, Boro struggled to get out of their own twenty two for the rest of the half. The defence held well especially as Stephen Donalds kicking was wayward and the handling was poor adding to more pressure on the own line. The score stayed 17 v 0 at half time.

With the wind at the backs, Oundle’s kicking going backwards and the scrum going forward Boro could not turn possession into points in the second half and the game became very stop start with handling eras from both teams leading to endless turnovers and scrums. One tackle from Stephen Mills prevented a certain score by the Oundle fly-half. After 15 mins George Shipman came on for Bobby Dhillon and started his game by giving away a penalty and giving Oundle a brief encounter into Boro’s half. ‘Club Colours’ Coombs was also substituted for Ben ‘the best one of the three’ Gardiner. Luke Smith also entered the fray for Stephen Donald.

Boro soon realised they had the wind, Jason Minney kicked long and the chase caused Oundle to fumble. From the scrum Fordham picked up and offloaded to Stephen Mills who was shifting at some speed, he went over for Boro’s fourth try which was converted by Keg.

The last play of the game saw Minney put in a beautifully weighted cross field kick only for Danns to fumble over the line. The Game ended 24 v 0 with Shipman still the cleanest player on the pitch and giving away two penalties, (we should all learn from this!!!). Boro look forward to the Final on 18th April either against Kettering or Mkt Harborough.

Man of the Match Andy Fordham.

Captains Comment – ‘A good performance for the first twenty proved decisive but we couldn’t capitalise on this. There were a lot of positives to take put of this game but still some parts of the game to work on if we want to come away with two trophies. Finally, a big thank you to the spectators whose comments inspired the team and also a thank you to the subs especially those that didn’t come on (psst I’m only allowed to make 3 out of 5 subs!)