Burntwood RUFC 20 Old Yardleians 3
On a day when the top four sides in the Midlands 3 West North all won,
Burntwood kept up with the pacesetters with three close range tries to
defeat bottom of the table Old Yardleians.
The home side failed to fire on all cylinders despite opening the game
in promising fashion. It was not until the last 10 minutes that they
made the game safe even though the visitors rarely threatened throughout
the whole 80 minutes.
Graham
Shelley’s men spent the opening half hour in opposition territory
beginning with their own kick off which was fumbled by the old boys. It
lead to a scrum infront of the visitors’ posts which then became a
penalty for a high tackle. Matt Wood had the easy task of putting his
side ahead after three minutes.
With all the play in the Old Yards half, the spectators had to wait for
another 22 minutes to witness the first try of the afternoon. From a
five metre scrum, skipper Shelley picked up and spun out of a tackle for
the touchdown.
More good work by Shelley and his brother Lloyd earned a second penalty
chance for Wood from 35 metres out but he put his kick to the right of
the posts.
Old Yards finally got over the halfway line in a spell of play up to the
break.
They
won two penalty kicks at goal – the first going wide left but the second
was from infront of the posts to make it 8-3 at the turnaround.
Burntwood’s play suffered from poor handling in the 3rd quarter but the
introduction of John Haire for Steve Blockley seemed to provide the
impetus needed to seal the league points.
His first contribution was a strong run through the centre to set up a
series of five metre scrums. After five minutes of battering at the
visitors’ line, Mark Partridge finally found a gap near the left corner
flag to record his side’s second try.
With the final whistle due, Burntwood were again in five metre territory
and this time scrum half Ollie Whitehouse finished off a drive by his
pack to score under the posts. Wood’s conversion brought a disappointing
contest to a close.
Burntwood’s programme up to the Christmas break could hardly be tougher.
They travel to face top of the table Tamworth this Saturday (December )
and then host joint second Veseyans on December 19.
On Sunday morning (December 13) four home games are scheduled – U16s v
Uttoxeter, U15s and U13s v Burton and the U14s v Newcastle.
