Derby Day. Burnham vs North Petherton. We have enjoyed a number of great games against our rivals, The Oaks from Beggars Brook over the years. This proved to be no exception. Burnham took the game to the opposition in the early exchanges but it was not long before Pethy, against the run of play scored. This motivated Burnham further and again they pressed the Pethy line. The forwards continued to win good possession. The scrums were solid with the new front row pairing of Ryan Sheppard and Chris Panayi surrounding the forever youthful Nick Mcken. However the backs could not convert this into points as the ball could not find our superior pace on the wings. It kept getting held up at 10 or 12. Pethy with some tactical kicking made their way back up the pitch. Winning their line out after forcing Burnham to kick out, they caught and drove, getting their second try. This was not looking good. However Burnham got themselves back into the game and made their way closer to line by the clubhouse. This time No. 10 Will Conway found Man of The Match Tom Wall on his outside shoulder and he was able to force his way over the line. Will Conway converted Burnham’s first try. Changes were made on both sides and some strong running by new No. 8 Ash Cutter made the difference. Burnham started to assert their authority on the game. 7 points to 12 at half time. Burnham continued to claw themselves back into the game after half time and replacement Jacob Allen ran hard and made his way over the line. Following the replacement of hard running centre Mason Shaw, this led to Ryan Beard stepping in at centre. Burnham realised but a little too late that they could use the wide pitch to their advantage and scored with Ryan Beard using his outrageous side step to skip round a couple of defenders. Just when you thought Burnham could actually win the game, Pethy made a number of changes and a couple of lapse tackles let Pethy score three further trys in quick succession. This finished the match out. A thoroughly entertaining game with some solid performances all round. However Burnham will need better game management to win over the top of the league contenders.

Burnham 2’s are away to Tor on Sat 21st Jan. 14:30 KO.