Dominant first half performance leads the way to another win

On a glorious winter day at the basc burnham welcomed fellow strugglers keynsham to the basc for what normally would be an exciting mid to top table encounter in recent seasons has turned into a fight for points to climb the league table. Burnhams pitch had held up to all the elements over the past month and was in fine condition for this time of year unlike keynshams which only a few weeks ago was more of a jet ski lake than a rugby pitch.

A 2 week lay off had given chance for players to rest and recover from injuries but captain russ pike was still only able to call upon a bare 16, the good news though was the front row was back to normality with streeter making his first start for a couple of months after his gastric band op and mike hocking coming back in after a 3 week lay off because of a fake tanning incident.

Burnham went right to it from the whistle camping themselves in keynshams half and after some constant pressure were awarded a penalty in front of the posts which tim piper converted to put the blues 3-0 up.
Keynsham then had a spell of possession and with several phases worked their way into burnhams territory and won a penalty of their and converted it to take the score to 3-3all.
With the returning ollie streeter making his presence known at scrum time burnham were finally able to get a decent platform to work from and they were rewarded with their dominant efforts from the ref in the gift of a penalty try as keynsham were penalised for bringing it down. piper converted to take the score to 10-3.

Burnhams ramapaging forwards were now dominating at both scrum and lineout with stu blake stealing their ball with ease but a special mention goes to rich “kiwi” muskett who stepped up in to the unfamiliar position of open side flanker and he produced a performance worthy of his fellow countryman richie mcaw (only for the first 20 minutes and after that he was more like richie mcknackered). As the first half progressed the blues dominant pack had another scrum 5 metres from the keynsham line and with pure control and power drove the opposition back to give stu blake an easy touch down to take the scoreline to 15-3 conv missed.

The halftime teamtalk was simple keep pressure on in set piece and to not fall out of focus and concentration in defence. So with the half underway burnham started the same as they did in the first and worked their way down into the 22 of the opposition and through some good phase ball streeter manged to wriggle his way over from 10 metres to score. conv missed 20-3.
Still keeping in keynshams half burnham were rewarded with another penalty in front of the posts which piper duly obliged and took the score to 23-3. 
Keynsham then responded with 2 tries of their own from their number 8 who made strong runs all day this was down to burnhams old favourite weakness of sloppy tackles but take nothing away from the opposition they worked hard for their reward.
Towards the end of the game burnham gained their bonus point through yet another pushover try for stu blake to fall on and finish the scoring off at 28-15.

A strong first half from burnham and dominance in the set piece gave them the platform to work from and produce a performance they are used to giving although there was a slight lapse towards the end which was down to tired bodies and a skeleton side it was good to see burnham back to their best.
Well done to james osgood for his strong debut perfromance
man of the match stu blake.

Burnham finish off 2012 with an away trip to north bristol on saturday.