Burnham welcomed avon to the basc ground in glorious running rugby weather but turned out it was more a battle of defences that would be on show.
Burnham hadnt played avon since the days of somerset premier 4 years ago but knew from those games how difficult they would be to break down and that after their last seasons campaign where they became champions of somerset prem they had more than earned their place in this league.
Burnham made a couple of changes to thier backline with kiwi coming back into the starting line up after overcoming his ballet injury and there was a debut for new signing dan at scrum half.
From the start it was clear to see that burnham were playing with a lot of complacency after last weeks dominant performance and were expecting an easier ride when seeing the opposition forwards were similar size to theirs but came up against a side that were technically very good in the scrums and managed to withstand the full force of burnhams front row power.
From an attacking scrum avons 10 dummied his way through burnhams backline defence which was so strong last week from the resulting breakdown and phases penalties were conceded and avon were 0-6 up.
This seemed to spark burnham into action and a great burst from russ pike from his 22 he scorched his way into avons half and off loaded to kiwi who put what can only be described as a somewhat fortunate crossfield kick (even though he was trying to kick to the corner) into the arms of jordy paul who sprinted his way into the corner only to be stopped by a fine try saving tackle from their fly half. Burnham gathered the ball from a lineout and again showed their attacking abilities with forwards and backs interlinking well again for mike hocking to give his front row compatriot ollie streeter the scoring pass and see him stroll into the corner. 5-6 cooper missed conv.
With a stern talking to from russ pike and coach elisi at halftime burnham started strongly and were rewarded with another well worked lineout from vice captain sam coles the ball was passed down to streeter who bulldozed his way over from 15 metres to score his second of the game and put burnham into the lead unfortunately in the act of scoring ollie broke his boot and was forced to leave the field crying for a new pair.
Burnham worked their way down into the opositions half and again from a lienout burnham drove mike hocking over the line to take the score line to 15-9.
Avon had their chances but burnhams defence was strong and had their kicker had a better day with the boot then burnham would of beeen in trouble but if burnhams kicker had a better day as well then the scoreline would of been more comfortable.
The bad parts of burnhams play was their poor discipline in defence throughout the team and resulted in bryan webb taking a “team” yellow card which would end up in him receiving another 10 mins later for another offence that on any other day would of seen him rewarded with a penalty for him and his team but due to burnhams high penalty count the ref deemed it in favour of the opposition avons.
Burnham held out strong in the final few minutes with 14 men to earn the victory all credit to avon who deserved their bonus point for their physically strong and youthful side who will no doubt be comfortable in this league.
Burnham could of been comfortable winners if they had realised that EVERY game in this league will be tough and that they must start from the first whistle and not wait for the other side to gain an upper hand also to trust each other in defence and not compete at every break down where its not needed. The plus points from this is that a win is a win and if this was last season they would of lost but they kept their heads up to grind out the win which shows this young burnham side has started to mature into a strong competitive side.
This saturday burnham are away to chosen hill former pupils in what is believed to be the first ever meeting between these two sides
Coach leaves around half 11 to 12.
Man of the match was mike hocking sponsored by pete and liz evans.