Burnham-on-Sea 2nd 12- Wiveliscombe 34
“Wivi wills over Burnham”

Burnham Seconds travelled to Wiveliscombe on Sat 20 Oct in high spirits on the back of three decisive wins in Somerset 2.
Some last minute juggling had to take place but in spite of this Captain Matt Slater had an impressive amount of weaponry to field.
It was a good day for running rugby despite the condition of the pitch; notwithstanding all this Wivi were to be treated with respect as previous encounters had shown they are capable of turning out well balanced sides and have proved that at home they are a formidable force to be reckoned with.
Burnham started with a well balanced work up to the game; the game plan was to work it out in the Forwards and give the backs the ability to run, the pitch was relatively narrow and short.
The official got the game under way and it started in a   dream like manner; from the kick off Tom Stevens charged down the scrum halves kick and in the ensuing pursuit of turnovers and very good cohesive forward work Mike Whitfield opened the scoring; the Wivi stand was in shocked silence. The try went unconverted; Burnham was on fire. This early storm trooper tactics spurned Wivi into action and they mounted a number of very good attacks using in the main their forwards who were a very good unit, Burnham held out and went back into the attack with a deep kick into the oppositions half from Alex Bowkett which was pounced upon by Matt Love who fed inside to Will grant who was unable to get the ball to Sam Ford who was bundled out of play.
At this stage both teams were locked into the scoring mode and it was well into the half when Wiviliscombe eventually through a series of forward plays tied down the Burnham defence and they crossed the line, this effort was converted.
After a quick analysis of the situation by the skipper Matt Slater Burnham got it back together; and after a battle for domination in the middle of the field fed Matt love who sprinted 30 M to score under the posts this effort was converted by Alex Bowkett. The game went on into the break with the scores at Burnham 12 Wiviliscombe 7. There was every thing to play for.

The second half got under way and it was clear that the opposition had focused on the task in hand, they got down to the job of playing to their strength which was in the forwards they made during this half a number of impactive substitutions which was to pay great dividends.
Burnham at this point lost there way, and certainly never played to the prowess of the first half, lots of silly mistakes crept into the play which the official was only to happy to penalise; the game plan was malfunctioning drastically as was demonstrated when the opposition scored two quick tries in succession. Wiviliscombe were now almost at will able to pin Burnham down in there own 22 with long territorial kicks into unguarded space; Burnham would then infringe which gave the home side ample opportunity to kick at Goal of which many were successful. A further two tries were scored during this  period.
This frustrated the Burnham players immensely as they knew they were more capable.
Despite this pressure the Burnham side continued to mount attacks into the oppositions half and it was most unfortunate that this hard work was not rewarded with points it certainly deserved to be.
The official finally brought the game to a close with the home side running out winners 34-12.

In the after match review there was a lot of negative commenting on how the game had evolved; all Burnham players had contributed in this game, they had continued to compete robustly even when things were not going well; this was to their credit; all felt a high degree of remorse as to the performance due mainly to the fact that we could all have done it better.
The team must draw experience from games like this and learn from the mistakes made and put in place a mind set to ensure that each game produce’s a ‘specific learning account’ that is implemented in future games.
This game is now  behind us  and  we  must  look ahead to  Saturdays fixture  at  home to  Ivel  Barbarians.
All players are to make their  availability known soonest  to  Matt Slater and  make  every  effort  to  get  the  training on at  least one of  the  sessions.( ideally Thursday)

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