Bees salvage draw in Syston season opener

Tries by Tawanda Chipadza and Mikey Whettell in the last 10 minutes of the game salvaged a 16-16 draw for the Bees in their opening game of the season against Syston.

The Bees had lost their opening league fixture in the previous seven seasons and, for a good portion of the game, it looked like that unfortunate statistic would be further extended as the men in gold were out thought and out played by their hosts in many departments.
Playing up a slight slope and against the breeze, Birmingham & Solihull were reduced to 14 men within just four minutes with debutant winger “Chip” Chipadza, eager to make an impression, was justifiably shown a yellow card for taking his opponent out in the air.

Having won all three on their pre-season fixtures with some gusto, the Bees - led once again by skipper Chris Goddard - seemed oddly lethargic and lacking in intensity. In contrast their wily opponents made the most of the conditions to starve the visitors of the ball, dominating territory and possession in the first period.
The Bees’ inability to get up into the higher gears wasn’t helped by a worrying penalty count, as a combination of infringements and indiscipline found them increasingly on the wrong side of referee Peter Caunt.

Fortunately, it was only penalties on the scoreboard at half time though, as Syston led 6-3 thanks to two kicks slotted by centre Adam Nunney to the one from Bees’ scrum half Jack Jolly.

With a reshuffle in the backline at half time – Mitch McGahan moving to fullback, George Adams to the wing, Charlie Mumford on at scrum half with Jolly moving to outside half – and the prospect of playing with the stiffening breeze, the traveling Bees supporters could be forgiven for expecting a rebound in the second period.

It wasn’t a script that the Leicestershire side had read at the break though and they came out even more fired up. They soon had a try under their belts, with replacement prop Aaron Dowson crashing over from short range. With Nunney adding the extras, the Bees were now 10 points adrift with even more to do.

Indeed energetic defence and growing Bees frustration meant that it was 18 minutes into the second half until they could loosen their host’s stranglehold on the game, with a Jolly penalty reducing the deficit following the first meaningful foray into home territory. However, a Nunney penalty soon restored Syston’s lead to two scores on the 25-minute mark and, with it, a growing sense that the opening game hoodoo was to set to continue.

To their credit, the Bees tapped into all the work and effort that they had put in pre-season. Tom Price, on for Rob Gregg, together with Joe Foreman, Matt Tibbatts and Danny Wright started to make in-roads into the Syston defence. This allowed the ball to be swung wide to the burly Dan Barrett on the left wing and Chip on the right flank, back on the field to replace the injured Jimmy Oliver.

It was the pacey right winger that got the first of the two tries needed, with centre Mikey Whettell scoring in virtually the same spot in the right corner minutes later; Jolly was unable to slot either of the difficult conversions to grab the victory.

However, in the circumstances – not least as Nunney just pushed a speculative long range penalty effort wide in the last kick of the game – the Bees would have been glad to salvage the draw.

It would perhaps be harsh to draw too many conclusions from the opening game of the season. Frustrating as the game was to watch from a Bees supporter’s perspective, Syston proved again that they are a good side who will doubtless cause problems for any team in the league this season, just as they did last year (evidenced by wins against both promoted sides Hinckley and Scunthorpe).

Eight new faces took the field for the Bees– five debutants and three returnees, the set pieces worked pretty well and good fitness levels were a key factor in the last twenty minutes of the game.

However, Head of Rugby Pete Glackin and First Team Coach Ben Woods will no doubt be looking for improvements in a number of areas as they prepare for the first home game of the season against Bedford Athletic next Saturday (10th September, KO 3pm Portway).

Birmingham & Solihull Bees:- (1) Dan Bosworth (2) Zane Raimondi (3) Kurtis Payne (4) Chris Goddard © (5) Rob Gregg (6) Danny Wright (7) Ashley Scriven (8) Matt Tibbats (9) Jack Jolly (2P) (10) Mitch McGahan (11) Dan Barrett (12) Mikey Whettell (T) (13) Jimmy Oliver (14) Tawanda Chipadza (T) (15) George Adams. Repacements (16) Joe Foreman (17) Tom Price (18) Charlie Mumford.
Referee:- Peter Caunt