Brilliant Bees march on with bonus point win

A five-try bonus-point win against sixth-placed Towcestrians was the perfect way to toast the New Year for the Bees, writes Steve Johns.

The result brings the Bees’ winning streak to seven league games on the bounce and cements their position in third place in the table, keeping them hot on the heels of Sheffield in second and Nuneaton in first.

Foggy yet mild conditions at Portway set the scene for both sides to come out firing in the opening ten minutes. Bees were eager to avenge their defeat to Towcestrians earlier in the season and went about this via the direct route in the forwards. A catch and drive from a line out allowed Zane Raimondi to crash over early on from short range, converted by Jack Jolly.

The Bees 7-0 advantage was doubled after a determined sequence of play starting from Raimondi’s courageous diving on a loose ball to secure possession, which led to a Bees attacking platform. Fly half Max Rodman fed Ashley Scriven who ran a hard line, carving open the Towcestrians’ defence, and side stepping the full back from 22 metres out to go under the posts. Jolly added the simple extras from the tee, making it 14-0.

The home side’s dominance in the scrum was creating real problems for the opposing front row, leading to many penalties that were duly kicked into the corners. From a spell of possession at the midway stage of the half, Bees’ Matt Tibbats showed sublime speed of hands to feed outside centre Callum McBurnie for a try in the left hand corner. Jolly, playing this week at scrum-half, continued his excellent kicking form by impressively converting from the touchline. He soon added another penalty from a collapsed scrum, making the score 24-0 at half time.

Towcestrians came out and threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Bees’ defensive line for the first 15 minutes of the second half. The Bees’ system held firm until a momentary lapse led to a try for Towcestrians’ left winger Matt Bodily. Inside centre Benjamin Rowe, matching Jack Jolly’s effort in the first half, converted smoothly from the touchline, clawing back the score to 24-7.

Even amounts of possession for large portions of the second half denied the scoreboard any more points from either side and it was late on in the second period before the Bees extended their lead, and importantly secured the bonus point try.

From a sequence of forward pick and drives, Jack Jolly sold the Towcestrians defence an audacious dummy and slid between two would-be tacklers to dive under the posts. The Bees’ home support were jubilant and when Jolly added the simple extras, he put the result beyond doubt at 31-7.

In one of the final plays of the game, excellent support from the industrious Bees left wing Tawanda Chipadza gained ten metres from nowhere, at which point the refreshed Bees’ tighthead Kurtis Payne was on hand to take a pop pass and power another ten metres to score a try, taking three defenders with him in the process. Jolly added the final points of the match with the conversion, making the final score 38-10 in Bees’ favour.

Next week the Bees are at home again, with Bridgnorth the visitors to Portway (Saturday 14th January, KO 2.15pm).
Birmingham & Solihull Bees:- (1) Pete Koziot (2) Zane Raimondi (1T) (3) Kurtis Payne (1T) (4) Andrew Weaver (5) Chris Goddard © (6) Ashley Scriven (1T) (7) Michael Stephens (8) Matt Tibbats (9) Jack Jolly (1T, 5C, 1P) (10) Max Rodman (11) Tawanda Chipadza (12) Ben Phillips (13) Callum McBurnie (1T) (14) Joe Bridger (15) Chris Fensome. Replacements (16) Joe Foreman (17) Matt Spink (18) Matt Dight.

Referee: Rob Tearne.