Sat 7 Mar 2026
Old Coventrians were the latest visitors to Fortress Fengate to take on play off chasing Peterborough RUFC. The home side's depth was tested once again with no less than 8 Borough 1st team backs unavailable through injury or work commitments, so into the starting team came Harry Anderson who was making his first start at flyhalf and Mark Smith making his first team debut on the wing. Despite the changes in personal Borough still ran out winners by 62-26. As the scoreline suggests Borough were in control for large parts of the game but we were still frustrated at times by some poor ill-discipline.
Borough started off brightly and scored after only 2 minutes when Alfie Lewis went over on the back off rolling maul. The tries kept on coming when Max Arnold finished a long range attack. Callum Cruickshank was next to go over when he finished off a break by Harry Anderson from the kickoff. Cruickshank then had his second a couple minutes later when Captain Will Bell broke from a scrum in his own half offloading to Cruickshank who outpaced the defence from 50 metres out. Next to score was scrumhalf Tom Kemp when he finished off a nice counter attack move from deep. With the conversion by Anderson Borough were now 31-0 up after only 15 minutes of play and cruising but then began to go off the boil as they tried to score from every phase which lead to silly mistakes and poor defence. Credit to Old Cov's as they kept trying and were rewarded with a try of their own after some missed tackles from the home side. Borough though were still the dominate and after a turn over at a ruck Kemp kicked over the top for fullback Nic Langton chase down and score. Not to be out down the forwards now got in the act and prop Chris Sykes barged his way over to score. Then just before halftime Old Cov's who were now chasing a four try bonus point to get something out of the game scored a try when they broke from the back off a maul from close range to crash over. As the 41-14 half time score line suggest Borough had been dominate but this didn't stop head coach Sam Crooks from asking for more from his side especially around control and defence.
Borough had the perfect start of the second half when New Zealander Murphy Hill took the kick off at pace, offloaded to Josh Casbon who got to with in 5 metre's of the tryline before he was brought down but he had the presence of mind to pop the ball up for a supporting Cruickshank to score his third. Despite the bright start Borough were still being guilty of switching off at times and Old Cov's had their best spell of the game where they controlled both possession and territory. From broken play Old Cov's scored 2 tries to give them a bonus point four scoring 4 try's on the day. After a few choice words from Captain Will Bell Borough wrestled back control and were soon scoring again with Anderson breaking through from 20 metres out to score. Next Max Arnold had his second when Hill gave a simple pass into space allowing Arnold to race clear and score. With the final whistle Borough were convincing winners by 62-26.
Director of Rugby Shane Manning's comments "we were clearly the better team but the Coaches were from happy with the overall performance such is the standards the lads have set themselves. We just got a bit complacent around our inside defence and didn't work as hard as we should. But in the race to make to the playoffs its a step in the right direction. We have a week off now before we travel to 2nd placed Old Scouts. Its going to be a real challenge as they are a quality side and it could be a dress rehearsal of the play offs should they remain second and we stay fifth. We have things to work on and hopefully will begin to get a few of our injured lads back as we enter the business end of the season".
