Dunstablians 31 v 21 Wellingborough

Wellingborough failed to come away with the points in a hard fought match away at Dunstable with the home side winning 31-21.

The day started badly for Borough as replacement Pete Gilbey decided not to turn up for the day, leaving them with a man short on the bench. Matters got worse as half the team managed to get lost on the way to the game and only arrived 20 minutes before kick off. The poor start showed as Dunstable scored within the first 5 minutes although the referee failed to spot a forward pass leading to the try.

Wellingborough came back hard and kept the home side in their 22 for long periods but could not find a way through the defence. Dunstable then worked the ball down into the Wellingborough half and another mistake by the ref saw him miss a knock on from the attacking side which led to another try. The Borough players felt hard done by but they didn’t let their heads go down and again worked their way back to the oposition’s line. After a good period of play, debutant Shane McLaurie crashed over from close range but by the time the ref finally made his way round to the other side of the ruck he deemed the ball to have been held up.  By this time the Dunstable players were already under their own posts awaiting the conversion.

Borough put this behind them and started the 2^nd half brightly as they soon got the try they deserved when after a good kick through from Steven Gall, winger Rob Owen out sprinted his opposite number to score in the corner. Pete Vickers converted from the touch line.

Dunstable came back right away and soon got the extra score to move them further ahead and minutes later Vickers had a kick charged down on his line by a player who the ref again failed to spot as being off side and Dunstable moved to a 26-7 lead.

With 10 minutes remaining Borough rallied together and their best rugby saw them score through 2^nd row James Franklin, which Vickers converted. This spurred Borough on and again they took the game to Dunstable.  After more good phases number 8 Kyle Danns crashed over from short range and with Vickers adding the extras the game was 26-21. The travelling side now sensed they could pull off a shock win.

With 60 seconds left, the game was held up because of a neck injury to one of the Dunstable players. By the time the game restarted, Borough had an attacking lineout but poor decision making from the forwards lead to Borough running out of players in attack. With one final effort, Vickers put a chip through for Gall but the ball bounced into the opposing winger’s hands and he was able to sprint the length of the pitch to score the final try.