BIG MATCH PREVIEW
We are delighted to welcome the players, officials and supporters of Bournville RFC to the Woodlands on Saturday (ko 15.00) for the first ever league game between the two clubs. As clubs ascend the RFU league hierarchy, there are a handful of clubs who haven’t featured before on Fylde’s fixture list since the start of the embryonic league structure in the 1980s and Bournville, or the ‘Chocos’ as they are affectionately known, is the latest.
In fact, Bournville was founded ten years earlier than Fylde in 1909 as the rugby section of the Bournville Athletic Club. Its distinctive history is linked closely to the Cadbury Company as it began as a factory team made up only of the firm’s employees and wearing, appropriately, chocolate colours. This remained the case for many years before it became an open club.
The Club flourished in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s and ran up to six teams each week during the season. The 1990s were much more challenging as player numbers dropped considerably and there was uncertainty over its Rowheath base. After 100 years of rugby at Rowheath a major change to the Club’s aspirations was the move to Avery Fields in Edgbaston This move has provided excellent playing surfaces and infrastructure, not least of all for the thriving and buoyant mini/junior section.
One tangible link between Fylde and Bournville is that both are members of the Community Group’s family of, currently, eight clubs running distinctive and exciting community coaching programmes. The staff of the Fylde Rugby Community Foundation led by Head of Community Coaching Phill Mills are employed by the Community Group. So both clubs share the fantastic ambition to spread the rugby playing message through their local schools, colleges and general communities and to be major forces for change in these communities.
The Bournville club climbed the RFU hierarchy of divisions dramatically, from level 10 to level 4, arriving in National Two after promotion from the regional Midlands Premier division in 2019-20.
Whilst producing home grown talent able to thrive at National League level, the Club has also recruited players from the Midlands and beyond. Their early games this season showed the strength of the squad, with three victories in the first four matches over Huddersfield (19-24), Harrogate (47-20) and Wharfedale (66-13), plus an agonising 48-46 last minute defeat at promotion favourites Rotherham.
Three successive defeats in recent weeks, two of them in the last few minutes, at Sedgley Park (20-6), Sheffield Tigers (19-17) and, most surprisingly, at home to Blaydon (26-27), have somewhat disrupted their early season trajectory and they sit currently in 8th place in the division. They will, however, provide the most demanding opposition for Fylde who will be looking to get over the disappointing defeat at
Sedgley Park last Saturday.
Bournville’s Head Coach, fly-half, playmaker and goal kicker is Australian-born Mitch McGahan. He’s made almost 100 appearances for the Club and has been incredibly influential in the rise of the Club in recent seasons. With Greg Smith leading points scorer in N2N, he’s narrowly ahead of Mitch in the ranking.
One of the coaches helping McGahan is the very experienced former Worcester Warriors Premiership centre Alex Grove who also makes occasional appearances in the Chocos midfield. Grove famously successfully swam the English Channel for charitable causes in 2020!
More recent recruits include backrower Sam Montieri, formerly an Italian U’19s international and a Stourbridge player; former Luctonians, Bridgnorth and North Midlands prop Ryan Smeilus; and the return of young talent, Jonjo Fanning, a loose forward or hooker who has represented Northampton Saints and Bedford Blues Academies as well as Ireland U’18s.
Leading try scorer this season is Ollie Dawkins who shares the top place in N2N with 8 tries along with Fylde’s Tom Grimes. The team is skippered by hooker James Weaver.
[Photo courtesy of Bournville RFC]