Sat 21 Oct 2023
Bowdon v WPRFC
21st October 2023 – Park miss out at Bowdon
Bowdon 38 – 25 WPRFC
This week Park travelled to third place Bowdon following a great win last week at home. The conditions were fine but soft underfoot following some very heavy rain and Park needed another great performance to continue the season development and move into the top half of the table. It was another changed side following some injuries and unavailability with Matt Treacy taking over the captaincy with James Johnson out of action.
With the game underway, Park started with winning the ball from the kick off and immediately launching an attack but unfortunately the ball was stolen by Bowdon, and they cleared their lines, but Bowden knocked on following their line out and Park cleared their lines. On 7 minutes, indiscipline by Bowden gave Park an opportunity to kick points but the kick fell short from 40m out. The game was fairly balanced in the early exchanges with both sides having good ball, but unforced errors stunted their attacks but on 12 minutes Bowden scored a converted try from short range to open up a lead (7-0). Park worked well in attack, but we kicked away possession and gave Bowden the opportunity to attack us and gave them possession and territory. On 20 minutes Bowden scored their second converted try when they found a four on two on the right-hand side and scored (14-0). From the restart Park got a penalty for Bowdon holding on and kicked for the line out which we won and showed our power when we set up a maul drove 15 metres over the line with Tom King scoring the unconverted try (14-5). The game was still very tight, but Park got some field position and with a scrum 5 metres out Cameron Flanagan picked up from the back of the scrum one pass out to Charlie Hyde who scored a converted try in the corner to bring us within two points (14-12). After trailing on the scoreboard Park got a kickable penalty on 36 minutes which Benny Elliot kicked to take the lead (14-15). We didn’t have the lead long as Bowdon struck again on 39 minutes with a similar close quarter converted try to round up the first half (21-15).
Half time score 21 - 15
The second half started well for Park and Bowdon indiscipline gave Benny Elliot the opportunity on 45 minutes to close the gap on the scoreboard with a penalty kick (21-18). Park were attacking well and getting over the gain line with powerful carries and on 50 minutes a great break from 18-year-old Ben Lilley powered through two defenders and then off loaded a lovely ball to the ever-present Charlie Hyde who ran 40 metres to score a well worked converted try to take the lead again (21-25). Unfortunately, these would be the last points of the game for Park as our game became very clunky and disjointed and Bowdon dominated the last quarter of the game. Bowdon had possession and territory and on 65 minutes they scored their bonus point unconverted try to take the lead again (26-25). They were on the scoreboard again 5 minutes later with a controversial unconverted try in the corner to put some light between us on the scoreboard (31-25), even though the touch judge had his flag up for being out of the field of play, but the referee gave the try. Bowdon rounded off their win with another converted try on 74 minutes with a great long pass to their winger who beat our last defender (38-25). Park continued to attack in the last few minutes of the game, but errors stunted our attack, and we could not score that elusive bonus point try.
It was a tough game and Park showed some great attacking rugby in the early part of the game with some great performances across the team, but we lost our rhythm in the last quarter of the game and let Bowdon walk away with the points.
Final score Bowdon 38 – 25 WPRFC
Team: Chris Twigg, Charlie Hyde, Bradley Marshall, James Weeks, Tom Merrick, Benny Elliot, Cameron Flanagan, Tom King, Jake Cornwell, Mike Eaves, Joe Hickey, Jarred Lange, Sam Blears, Matt Treacy, Ben Lilley, Evan Retief, Luke Westgate and Dan Davenport
