It’s been a season to savour as Wellingborough are crowned champions

Boro’ sealed the deal with a 29-24 success at Bourne last weekend as a plan concocted in the post-lockdown era after the Covid-19 pandemic came to fruition.

Two tries from Kyle Draper and further scores from Chris Shipman and Kieran Checkley as well as three conversions and a penalty from the boot of Joel Richardson secured a 19th win from 21 matches as the title was wrapped up.

Checkley’s try sees him as the league’s top try scorer and fourth in the country at he level while Richardson’s 160 points has him on top of the league’s top points scorers.

Wellingborough have run in 116 tries with one game to go and they will finish with an unbeaten home record with only one other club at their level achieving the same feat.

It really has been a season to remember for Wellingborough and their young squad.

And Director of Rugby George Shipman admitted their superb success has been a couple of years in the making.

“We have been building to this point post lock down really,” he said.

“The second half of last season showed what we were capable of when winning five of the last seven games.

“We have one of, if not the youngest average age of squad in the league and the experience of last season made us stronger.

“We have built our development around the phrase ‘We Not Me’ in that we are not a first team, or a men’s section, it takes a whole club effort to achieve and you see that in the support from our volunteers and members, a number of senior players coaching in the junior teams (where they have no obvious connection) and building up an even stronger social element as just a few examples.

“We have a young talented squad, with a few experienced players who have been there and done it and support the group mostly leading by example on the pitch.

“We have three players selected for East Midlands U20s and one in the East Midlands Senior Set this year which gives an idea of the quality of the group, and I could possibly have argued that others are at that level too.

“I am extremely confident our current group of players will be able to perform again in the league above, but we must raise our standards as we want to continue to push rather than a mind set of going for survival in our first season back.

“We look forward in particular to renewing some old rivalries.”

It hasn’t all been plain sailing in the battle for the title.

Wellingborough suffered back-to-back defeats at the start of November, including one against nearest rivals Vipers.

But they didn’t look back after those couple of setbacks as 11 wins in a row sent them to the title.

When we met for our pre-season players meeting, we were clear that to get promotion we would have to have an unbeaten record at home and could only afford two losses for the season,” Shipman added.

“Perhaps I should have aimed for less losses, as going into the last game we have ticked off being unbeaten at home and have our two losses.

“The two losses obviously hurt the squad, both were dying minute defeats away from home and the last try against Vipers was, in particular, very hard to take.

“The group left knowing they were games we could have taken and the focus was clear that we would need to avenge these losses when back at Cut Throat Lane.

“We also knew our superior scoring record meant that if we continued with the rate of try bonus points that would help narrow the gap too.

“So it's fair to say no-one lost faith in the promotion push.”

Wellingborough will round off their title-winning campaign with a trip to Long Buckby on March 25.

Stewarts & Lloyds are well-placed to secure the runners-up spot in Counties Two Midlands East (South) on the final weekend of the season.

S&L secured a 12-5 victory at Biggleswade last Saturday to leapfrog Spalding who had their game postponed.

Spalding will still have an extra game to play but S&L can tighten their grip on second spot if they can win their final match of the season at Luton this weekend.

And they will be hoping for a favour from Rushden & Higham who host Spalding having suffered a narrow 20-19 loss to Luton last Saturday.

Oundle’s penultimate game of the Regional One Midlands season ended in a heavy defeat at second-placed Bromsgrove.

Oundle found themselves 60-0 down before they responded when Joe Sagoe went over in the corner for a try, which was duly converted by Tom Oliver.

But Bromsgrove added another converted score to wrap up a convincing 67-7 victory.

Oundle’s safety has been secured, however, and they will round off their season at bottom side Nuneaton on Saturday.

Kettering are finishing their Regional Two East Midlands campaign with a flourish as they beat Towcestrians 14-0 at Waverley Road to make it three wins in a row.

Tries from Haydn McCann and Locan McCabe, both of which were converted by William Tebby-Macloud sealed the Blues’ success and leave them in seventh place.

They will hope to make it four wins in a row when they head to Old Laurentians for the last game of the season this weekend.