Bourne are too good for depleted Rasen
Market Rasen & Louth fell to a 33-22 defeat at Bourne on Saturday with a depleted squad due to injury.
That meant one or two players playing out of position and ultimately the hosts prevailed, although Rasen still lie second in the league and three points above Bourne ahead of the final game of the season at home to Keyworth this weekend.
Rasen started brightly but Bourne took the lead with a penalty before they then scored their first try in the corner.
Rasen responded after working their way into the Bourne 22 and a drive over the line saw Will Stamp score the try to reduce the lead to one point.
But Bourne were soon on the attack again and another pop ball to the full-back and a well-timed offload to the centre meant they scored their second try.
Rasen now put together some better phase and a penalty on the Bourne 5m line was taken quickly and concerted forward pick and goes eventually wore down the opposition for Conner Jannet to drive over for Rasen’s second.
From the restart a storming run through the centre and an offload to Liam Dufton looked promising but a kick over the defence went a little too far over the dead ball line.
There followed another penalty to Rasen, kicked by Tommy Aldridge to leave the half time score 18-17 to Bourne.
From the start of the second half Bourne began to turn the screw a little more.
Awarded a penalty on the Rasen 5m line Bourne opted for a scrum. The ball was secured and after several attacks were repelled by the Rasen defence, the dam eventually burst and the Bourne forwards were able to find a gap and dot down for another try.
Rasen were still trying to put together attacking phase but finding it difficult to make ground against a strong Bourne defence, while both sides were reduced to 14 men after yellow cards for a difference of opinion.
Another run through the Rasen defence then resulted in a scrum for Bourne who drove over for the bonus point try.
Rasen hit back with a try of their own when prop Sam Lempard took the last pass on from a penalty to give Rasen a little hope.
But a penalty against Rasen for offside was kicked by Bourne to give a final score of 33-22 to the hosts.