Boston U16s follow the U15s in wining the NLD Vase

After being postponed and then very quickly called back on, Boston had a slow start, as Mansfield hit the ground running with lots of pressure and help Boston in their own half for the opening 10 minutes. The defence lead by captain Josh Moore, resisted several attacks, but when opportunities arose, could not get a clean exit. Several last ditch tackles into touch, and onto the try line but eventually Manfield managed to cross the line. Conversion was missed by the Mansfield fly half. 0-5.

This score brought life into the Boston side, and straight away from the kickoff, Brooks caught the restart and began the attacks. Manfield defended well, but eventually Brooks managed to find his way through and scored. Bowser missed the conversion. 5-5.

Boston again would attack straight from the kick off, with the kick again, straight into Brooks his arm. Brooks with some silky footwork would dance around the outside of the Mansfield defence and made ground. Boston would continue to with heavy carries from the forwards in particularly Healey and once again Brooks found himself crossing the white wash. Bowser missed the conversion. 10-5.

Mansfield would start to get the ball in hand again and started applying pressure, but with the wet and greasy weather conditions, there were several handling errors. The resulting scrums would aid Mansfield, as they held well in the scrums, and Boston would concede a number of penalties. Boston ended the half with 14, as Lovell was sinbinned for kicking the ball away with a penalty already awarded to Mansfield.

Mansfield pilled on the pressure with the player advantage, but some astute defence and a last ditch tackle putting the Mansfield winger in to touch would bring the half to a close.

Half time – Boston 10 Mansfield 5

Boston despite being down to 14, began the half the brighter of the teams, and added another try early on. The forwards in their pods trucked the ball up and sucked in Mansfields defence. Quick ball from Bradley-Wright to Brooks gave him the time to put in a pin point grubber kick for full back Bowser to run and score spectacular in the corner. Bowser would miss the resulting kick. 15-5

Further ill discipline would hamper the game. 2 more yellow cards came one for Mansfield, and one for Bradley Wright, and with the rain still coming down making handling conditions extremely difficult. Boston’s defence would continue to be stubborn and Abrasive, with Bowsers exit kicking proving to be extremely effectively in eliminating the pressure Mansfield were putting on. Boston managed to score their final try from Captain Josh Moore, who managed to hold several Mansfield defenders to reach out on score on the line. The officials discussed a potential knock on from Moore, but came to the conclusion that he had grounded the ball. Bowser would convert the try. 22-5

The referee would hand out one final yellow card to Boston this time to Lewis Booth, and with the efforts of the team starting to take its toll, Boston conceded one last try and this would finish the scoring at 22-10.

There was joyous scenes at the end of the game with the Boston players and coaches all celebrating an extremely well fought win to lift the NLD Vase.

Full time Boston 22 Mansfield 10

Try scorers:

Elliot Brooks x 2

Jack Bowser x 1

Josh Moore x 1

Conversions

Jack Bowser x 1

U16s Team

Healey, Lovell, Gabriel, Hills, Dvokels, Knowles, Collyer, Moore ©, Bradley-wright, Brooks, Winter, Booth, Harrison, English, Bowser

Replacements – Westbrook, Robinson, Dawson