Clifton overcome Bournemouth

Clifton deservedly recorded the double over their South Coast rivals and in doing so gained a try scoring bonus point.

Sadly the game will be remembered for not the high quality produced at times by both sides but for its feisty nature which young referee Chris Ridley at times struggled to keep the lid on.

The result was one red card to both sides while we received two yellow cards in the second half.

We started the game in fine style and scored a scintillating try after five minutes. Following a scrum twenty metres out fly half Brad Barnes and centre Dave Massey produced a clever switch which exposed the home sides midfield attempt and put flanker in for a try. Barnes’s conversion attempt flew just wide of the post,

It was then Bournemouth’s turn to dominate with their back row producing some good driving runs and eventually after ten minutes winger Russell Westcott speedy run down the touch line resulted in an unconverted try being scored,

The first feisty incident came just after the restart which resulted in lock Joe Quinn being yellow carded. As Quinn was leaving the field the referee thought he had allegedly expressed dissent towards him and changed the yellow card to red.

This left Clifton with fourteen men for the remaining sixty eight minutes of the game.

Bournemouth continued to pressurise Clifton giving them a thorough examination Westcott crossed for his second try following a chip through by fly half George Drake who added the conversion.

The home’s lead was short lived as Clifton adapted to being a man short and with a move which went through several phases ended with George Karayiannis touching down and Barnes conversion levelled the scores.

The remainder of the half was full of open play but neither side could crack the others defence,

After the beak tension rose and referee Ridley issued a red card to home lock Rod Fuller for allegedly punching our prop Ellis Genge who received yellow at the same time.

After Genge returned to the action we also lost Barnes to the bin for a professional foul. This meant we played half the second half with thirteen men.

Despite this disadvantage we took total control of the second half producing rugby at times of the same quality we had displayed the previous week.

Full Back Ben Foley produced an explosive second half display with some twinkling foot work, chasing and catching of his own kicks ahead as well as running from the deep.

His reward was two tries both as a result of twisty runs through the Bournemouth, We wonder were Mike Brown the England international learnt his skills and on this display it must be from Ben?

Equally impressive was the dominance of our shorthanded pack who controlled both scrums and line outs and were dominant in the loose. Their reward came in the closing stages when they shoved the Bournemouth back at a scrimmage and were rewarded with a penalty try, Barnes landed two conversions and Foley a penalty. The home sides were only second half points came from a Drake penalty.

This result shows the confidence and character developing in the side. We remain in fourth position but our chances of reaching are slowly slipping as results go against us.