Heaton On?

Turn up the thermo

A late call from our good friend Kevin at Heaton made the disappointment of last Sunday's cancellation a distant memory. Heaton are a good side that we have only met in triangulars and festivals so to travel to their excellent facilities was a real treat as they have always given us a good game and been excellent company post game. Today reaffirmed this, and we look forward to reciprocating their hospitality in 2018.

And so to the game, which saw our usual jumbo squad stripped down to the bare minimum of just 13, and our front row drought became a famine as only Micheal P could make it. Heaton kindly furbished us a replacement hooker who played a blinder, while a knock to Tom F meant the lend of an excellent 10 who also enjoyed a run out against his buddies immensely.

So a makeshift team then against a Heaton squad of 24, some of whom were enormous! Burn were tasked with digging in deep, keeping the pill and looking to play wide, and that's just what was delivered. Heaton got over our line a few times but each try was well contested to the bitter end, while sustained pressure from the forward line saw Lewis pick and go to make the half time score a respectable 4 tries to 1. Our second spell saw some great turns of pace from James T and Arthur used his speed and strength to finally break the Heaton D while his overall defensive duties made him our MOM from my point of view. Heaton added a few more to their tally, before the try of the season contender from Johnny H finished the day beautifully. At the start of the 4th quarter, Heaton failed to make the 7m distance and the ref awarded us a scrum restart on halfway. Calum R popped the ball to Tom F at 10 who shaped to move to the centre before delivering a deft round his back pass back inside to Johnny running a hard line inside him toward the Heaton 10. The pass stuck and Johnny was at full tilt toward the 10 then the full back, before seeing off the the covering center/winger who tried to halt him on the line.. Nothing doing and Johnny dotted down, while the crowd went ballistic!!!

Should we have our full compliment back next week and Johnny's head have lost its swelling, we should be able to give Leigh a decent game in the cup. The whole team showed great spirit today, with lads like Teddy, Harry and Michael putting in a great shift, especially Michael's incredible hulk impression after his nose readjustment experience with the Heaton behemoth. Perhaps we could all bring our inner hulk next week and be a little more passionate in our play. Shouldn't be too big an ask given our recent history with the Leigh lads!!