Burnham-on-Sea 2nd19 Tor 7
“Burnham’s Magic Not good enough at Glastonbury”
Burnham Seconds travelled to Glastonbury to meet TOR in a league fixture. TOR currently sitting in sixth place in the league table had been enjoying a run of successful wins since the turn of the year. As is the case now the Burnham elite have experienced a distinctive change of attitude from the teams that they have come up against, its clear that every team wants to put one on the current league leaders, and with Wyvern breathing down Burnham’s neck in the league the pressure is on Burnham to maintain the winning form.
Burnham went through the early game ritual but it was clear that there was something lacking, Skipper Matt Slater did not have a full squad to choose from and we welcomed Matt Love on his first appearance from injury and Ryan Reynolds on a flying visit as was Horse of old.
From the start things did not go well for Burnham and the home side capitalised on mistakes and bad handling, so much so that for the first period Burnham were on the defensive this held out well with Dan Berry, Mike Whitfield and the back row of George Scott, Tom Stevens and Chris Jones holding out all attackers.
Gradually Burnham started to insert them selves and put together some very penetrating attacking moves that were only thwarted by bad handling errors. It was however clear that TOR had done their homework and had a number of talented players in crucial positions the no 8, scrum half and standoff were to cause Burnham problems. The packs were evenly matched and the back rows had players who could exploit any opening. So much so that it was TOR who drew the first blood half way through the first half with a break through try and conversation. This was followed by a period of intense pressure that could have added to their tally all but for the Burnham defence. This disturbed the composure of Burnham who was in a period of rhetoric. The call to rally was given and Burnham stared to exert pressure on TOR. Just before the half time period a fine move combining forward and back row gave Matt Love the ball in space who finished the job with a fine run in between the post converted by Mike Whitfield all even at Half time.
The second half started as it had finished with Burnham exerting pressure being camped in TORs 22; the pressure paid of with a fine solo run from Ryan Jones who off loaded to George Scott supported by Tom Stevens the ball was delivered to Mike Whitfield who finished it off between the posts, converted by Lee Berry.
Substitutions were made in the form of Tiny Reese and Horse for Mike Smith and Chris Jones. The game then centred around the mid field area with both sides jockeying for the upper hand good runs were made by both sets of backs but these actions broke down due to good defending or handling errors. Burnham had some very constructive attacks set up by Dan Berry and Matt Love; Ryan Reynolds played a very sound game at full back and was instrumental in setting up the final try of the afternoon by a penetrating run from his own half into the opposition half and with some good forward pressure saw Horse gallop across the line, sadly this was unconverted.
Burnham were lifted by this and exerted a considerable amount of pressure to get the fourth try and it nearly come from a blistering run from Matt Love who just failed to make the line supported by Ed Lewis who had come on as a replacement. Paul Landorfi who had replaced Ash Morris in the front row was also injecting pace into the forwards.
The game was finally brought to an end by the official
Burnham 19 TOR 7.
Burnham were not satisfied by their performance and the negative areas were aired in the after match review. These will provide learning accounts that all must take on board, work must be directed to sort these issues out, but we must not dwell on the negative their was some very good work and lots of effort put in to what was without doubt a bad day for Burnham. All players must make the effort to get to training on a Thursday night it’s there we must sort these glitches out. We are in league action next Sat at home. Please make your availability know to Matt soones