Burnham 2nd 0 Minehead 19

Minehead’s Minefield foils inspirational Burnham.

A feast of rugby was on offer at BASC on Saturday 10th November in  the   form of a Somerset County cup match with the First team playing a local Derby against Bridgewater Albion and   the  second  team playing off a rearranged fixture against Minehead.

Due to  injuries the firsts had called up a number of the second team and  with the colts playing away the second team had to juggle with the call up  of certain players.

Lee Berry  was out; walking wounded; therefore responsibility for command was passed to Rob Lewis with  the  pack leadership going to  Phil Collings.

The pre match work up  was very  well orchestrated in an effort to bring some cohesion to the side this was very  successful, spirits were very  positive as the  official got the game underway.
Minehead are a side that is known for an organised pack this side was true to  the mould and  the game commenced with both sides locked into  a battle for domination in the  forwards in the  middle of the  field. On numerous occasions both sides would  break out onto  the  backs in an attack formation only to  be held up  by a sound defence the forwards were linking well with Ash Morris taking his own ball and a frequent number of against  the  head put in’s, the pack was very  solid. Matt Catlon was in at  number 9 ably assisted by Alex Bowkett who was dictorial in the backs putting together the  attack formations to  throw at  the  Minehead backs. Lloyd at No 8 was inspirational in punching through from won ball in the  set piece.
As the game moved into the second quarter of the  half with no score Burnham were forced back into their 22 under immense pressure they  had been in this situation before and extracted themselves but unfortunately Minehead sneaked in on the  Blind side to cross the  line, try unconverted.

Burnham was stung into action and launched into a series of well executed handling moves lead by Alex Bowkett involving the backs Henry Bigwood and Lloyd this ended being camped in the  oppositions 22 for a considerable period. Sadly the  break through  did not  come. Burnham was giving away a lot of possession that had been hard  fought for due to silly errors. It was from one of those moments of a lack of focus that allowed the visitors to  break out from the siege to score again on the stroke of the half. This effort was converted.
The team talk was upbeat it was felt by all that Minehead did not deserve to  be in the position that they found themselves in and that Burnham had nothing to  show for all the  effort  that had been committed during the half.

Burnham was in a high state of activity at the restart and set about laying out the strategy for the next period. Unfortunately they started at a frenzy pace and it was during a period after a successful turn over that Minehead were able to steal possession and score under the uprights this effort was converted, putting more pressure on the home side.

All credit has to be contributed to  the Burnham side that just would not lie down, Minehead were exerting  dominance and were poised to  run amuck it was the steadfast and determination of the  Burnham side that quelled this intended points rush. Phil Collings; Glen Cutter; Ben Bowkett; Lloyd; Henry’s  workload was equivalent to  two players each; as attacks were repelled time and time again  Will Grant was at a steady state at full back and  was linking well with the  Osgood wingers to counter Minehead moves. Replacement’s in the  form of Ben Reynolds, Dan Thorne and Chris Lee were made; and made a contributory impact on the game which by this stage was at a deadlock.

The game was finally brought to  a close with Burnham again dominating the pressure on the visitors.
The result did not reflect the effort and guts that had been displayed during the game. The result was disappointing the effort was commendable. All players had done their jobs very well.

A much looked forward to game is on offer at Wyvern for Sat 17 Nov. Let Matt Slater know of your availability and if possible make training on Thursday evening.