Burnham’s first game of the season saw them kick off their campaign of with a 22 – 7 victory over Sidmouth. Burnham started the game remarkably brightly seeing Sidmouth struggle to get out of their own half. The first ten minutes saw Burnham keep the ball in Sidmouth’s half which Sidmouth really couldn’t cope with, seeing them make mistakes,giving penalties away. Despite the poor weather conditions Burnham showed great composure to keep hold of the ball and cause all sorts of problems for Sidmouth. Burnham continually gained yards with great carries to drive themselves forward and nearly scored when Tim Piper’s pick and go saw him pop it to Alex Watkins, who’s chip kick over the top met Russell Pike, who chased and scored in the corner, but was denied his and Burnham’s first try of the season as he stepped out at the corner. A lucky escape for Sidmouth but they didn’t learn, as Burnham started to create chance after chance.

Sidmouth manged to find their performance and started to give more of a challenge but still struggled to keep the ball. Burnham kept their shape putting in tackle after tackle helping them turnover the ball. The Twentieth minute saw Richard Muskett taken off with an injury after he took the ball in to contact and land awkwardly on his knee, this saw Matt Love replace him. Burnham kept piling on the pressure, despite losing one of their key players they kept on pushing Sidmouth and that showed when Matt Love chased down Alex Watkins kick and take out his opposite number seeing Burnham turnover the ball and win a penalty. Burnham’s pressure finally got the better of Sidmouth seeing Burnham win a penalty which Alex Watkins calmly put over, giving Burnham a well deserve 3-0 lead. Sidmouth managed to finally get in Burnham’s half which gave them a penalty which their fly half kicked to touch put Russell Pike tap it back into play but to his misfortune gave  back to Sidmouth’s flanker. Luckily Brandon Pettit was alert to stop the flanker from scoring which Russell turned over at the line feeding the ball to Alex Watkins, who put the ball in to touch but it didn’t stop Sidmouth’s second row tackling Alex without the ball costing Sidmouth a yellow card. Burnham won the lineout and drove their way from their twenty-two which Alex Watkins put into touch.

In the second half Burnham kept pushing Sidmouth and it finally paid off when Jordan Paul caught Tim pipers chip kick to score a well-deserved try, Tim piper unfortunately missed the conversion. Burnham’s confidence grew helping them pile more pressure on Sidmouth’s defence and again it worked when Brandon Pettitt Picked the ball from the back of the ruck scoring the try giving Burnham the bigger lead, this time Tim Converted the try and Burnham got stronger. Although Sidmouth hit back when their number eight picked the ball up from their own half and drove himself over the line to give them a lucky try. The Conversion was successful making it 15-7 to Burnham.

The last ten minutes was really physical seeing both sides making big hits and carries keeping their side going. Burnham nearly scored again when Jordan Paul received the ball inside the twenty-two, Brandon Pettit took and scored unfortunately this was disallowed for a forward pass. Burnham didn’t let that stop them as they kept pushing Sidmouth. With the last kick of the game Alex Watkins took the ball from Tim piper and scored underneath the posts which Tim piper converted to finish off what was a great way to start Burnham’s season.

By Robin McCord

From left to right Matt Slater,Ross Mckechnie, Tim Piper with the ball,Luke Gowan, Rob Leigh at the back  and Alan House