Blue and Whites beaten in county derby

Conceding two tries within the first 10 minutes would cost Boston Rugby Club dearly in this physical encounter away at Grimsby, writes John Fletcher.

In dreadful weather conditions, it would be Grimsby that adapted and implemented a better game plan which, as the season progresses, are lessons they need to learn from.

For this match head coach Ash Coates selected Charles Hughes at centre for his first team debut and welcomed back Tom Andrews and Anthony Buckberry on the bench.

For the majority of the first half, Boston found themselves camped in their own half and only had rare journeys into Grimsby’s half.

A try scored just before half time saw Boston enter half time 0-19 in arrears.

An early try by Grimsby extended their lead to 0-26 and it looked ominous as Mathew Bray came off injured to be replaced by Tom Andrews at flyhalf.

On 55 minutes Boston scored their first try through winger Jaron Cowern, the converted try by Andrews moving the scoreboard to 7-26.

Ten minutes later Andrews scored a fine solo try which he converted to bring the score to 14-26.

This would be the end of Boston’s fightback as two further tries from the home side saw the game end 17-36.

BOSTON: Fontaine, Beard, Graves, Eldin, Sharp, Cotton-Betteridge, Kippax, Miles, Gray, Bray, Hughes, Cowern, Piggins, Turley, Hummel; Replacements: Buckberry, Andrews, Hughes, Cook, Richardson.

On Saturday Boston entertain Meden Vale (KO 2.15 pm).