Borough boys increase their lead in title race
The Midlands East Division Two (South) title is Borough's to lose.
The Fengate lads racked up another big win on Saturday when stinging struggling Vipers 64-17 in Leicester and they have now gone 14 points clear at the top with six games left to play.
And five of those remaining games are against teams in the bottom half of the table. Their toughest test would appear to be an away game at third-placed Oadby on the last day of the season - April 22.
By then, barring a couple of major hiccups, they should have the title and promotion back to Midlands Division One already sewn up.
Borough ran in a terrific 10 tries against Vipers despite fielding a below-strength side.
Michael Bean, Nico Steenkamp, Ben Higton and Chris Sansby were all absent from the side that beat Oundle the previous weekend.
Tom Stuffins, Rob Linnell, Tom Downer and Tanaka Kanhukamwe came in and all did capable jobs.
In fact winger Stuffins emerged as a hat-trick hero.
He crossed three times after coming on as a second-half replacement.
Fly-half Joe Andresen also touched down three times and there were two tries each for centre Tom Williams and winger Stefan Gallucci. Williams added seven conversions for a personal tally of 24 points.
Borough didn’t actually play particularly well in the first half and it was only 19-17 at the turnaround.
But after the break they moved the ball out wide far more often and the tries came thick and fast.
Vice-chairman Archie Bennett said: “To be fair to Vipers they put up a brave fight in the first half. They kept it tight and it was very close.
“But in the second half we changed our gameplan and cut loose. They couldn’t live with us on the outside.”
Borough’s front row trio of George Stuffins, Aaron Throne and Stuart Day were excellent and there was an impressive debut at scrum-half by Downer.
Borough’s next opponents in a fortnight’s time at Fengate are bottom team Rushden, who were roasted 52-5 by fourth-placed Oundle on Saturday.
Borough’s remaining games:
Mar 4 - Rushden (home)
Mar 11 - Stamford (away)
Mar 25 - Belgrave (home)
Apr 1 - Luton (away)
Apr 8 - Market Harborough (home)
Apr 22 - Oadby (away)