On what was meant to be a wet dreary Saturday afternoon at the BASC turned out to be dry and pleasant day which was perfect for The Stags to produce some quality rugby on home turf.

St Berns came to The Pit on the back of good home win against Old Reds the week before and The Stags were looking to improve on last weeks performance away to Oldfield OB’s

The game started well with inside centre, Will Hopkins, making the first tackle and steeling the ball from hand and gain possession.
Stefan Pierce took the ball at pace, the only one he caught all game at pace, and broke the St B’s back line only to be tackled inside there 22 and St B’s were penalised resulting in Tim ‘Veteran’ Piper  adding the three points 3-0.
From the kick off The Stags gained moment again to find themselves back in opposite half and after several phases of play  were awarded another penalty which Piper came up with the goods again. 6-0
This seemed to spur on St B’s who managed to put The Stags on the back foot who conceded a penalty on the 5m line but nothing came of it for St B’s.
Burnham continued to keep good possession of ball and gained good territory only to give the ball away when the white line was in sight. 
Ash ‘block’ Cutter was being his normal self with some solid tackling and gaining good ground when ball in hand.
A scrum was awarded to St B’s but Hooker, Adam ‘wobbly line, Peters took it against the head for the ball to be fed through the backs, Piper created the over lap, side step the on coming back and popped to Russ ‘I’m back’ Pike to score his first of two try’s. Piper Converted 13-0 after 30 mins.
Some dubious refereeing decisions allowed St B’s to keep possession and force a penalty in Burnham’s 22 for not rolling away and a quick tap n go gave St B’s some points on the board 13-7 before half time.

Coach, Kevin Inalls, gave some stern words to troops at half time and clearly it worked.

From the KO, Tom ‘quiet as a mouse’ Wall caught the ball, took into contact and after two phases of play, Sam ‘hot stuff’ Lewis whipped it to Piper who committed his opposite number, passed to Josh Holder, who’s nose pointed in the right direction and led the way for a supporting Hopkins to be given the ball but still had 30m to go………he made it and Piper converted. 20-7.

Cutter carved his way through several St B players during one phase only for Captain Butter Fingers Kecks to drop the thing….tut tut!!!
From the resulting scrum, St B’s No 10 kicked away to clear his line but straight down the throat of Full Back Alex Watkins who caught the ball at pace back into St B’s half side stepped his opposite number and passed to Pike for his second try. Piper Converted 27-7.

A high tackle by Ryan Rossiter, plus the little scuffle after, put him and one St B’s both in the bin for 10m.

Burnham continued to play good attacking rugby with ball in hand and after several phases of play were awarded another try from Conor ‘Flat Top’ Howard who forced his way over the line to score The Stags forth try and Piper did you know what. 34-7.

With the game coming to a close St B’s ran out of options with little ball they had and The Stags finished with some simple quick ball to Tom Stevens who managed to stretch himself far enough to score near the posts and yes, you’ve got it already, my old school buddy, the ever faithful Mr Piper did the business to complete the score 41-7.

Next Week we travel to Minehead for what will be a tough match against The Other Stags

MOTM – Ash Cutter
Match Day Sponsor – Brean Leisure 

Report by Lee Berry