Birmingham Bulldogs 60 - 12 Boston Buccaneers

The Boston Buccaneers had a tough start to their 2017 Rugby League campaign loosing 60-12 to an inform Birmingham Bulldogs.

With many veteran players unavailable for the long away trip, Head Coach Jim Dearing gave league debuts to 8 players and fielded a team containing 4 under 17s. The well drilled Birmingham outfit soon exploited the under strength Buccaneers' gaps in defence. The Buccaneers cause was further hampered when they lost influential centres Matt Bray and Michael Baldwin to injury. It wasn't all one way traffic but dEspite making some good yardage mistakes and penalties saw them go into halftime down 32-0.

The second half saw the Buccaneers start brightly but they still lacked the clinical edge when close to the try line. Defensively everyone put in the real shift making crunching tackles all over the park. Midfield was organised by John Stanfield and new signing Brad Nixon who both set about trying to get the ball moving. Youngsters Jack Bell and Diogo Felicio made some punishing runs into Bulldogs territory moving the ball up to within 10 meters of the try line. A great ball from Brad Nixon found prop Matt Coley who rolled over defenders to power over for the Buccaneers first points. The try seemed to galvanise and inspire the Buccaneers who crossed the white wash again 5 minutes later when Sam Gray found Brad Nixon who ran a great line and went over the line untouched. The Buccaneers were now on the front foot and in the final 5 minutes Ryan Cuthbertson scored the pick of the Buccaneers tries sprinting 50 yards to dive over in the corner.

Despite the heavy defeat the young Buccaneers squad showed grit, determination and passion. For his superb tackling the man of the match award went to wing George Baldwin.

The Buccaneers return to action next week when they entertain Sherwood Wolfhunt at Boston RFC 2:30 kick off.

Buccaneers: T. Balderston, G.Baldwin, M.Baldwin, M.Bray, J.Cowern, B.Nixon, J.Stanfield, R.Cuthbertson, S.Gray, M.Coley, D.Fox, S.Kippax, L.Croker, D.Felicio, J.Bell, D.Harmston, M. Croker.