Burn bulldoze Northwich

Burn continued their good run of form with a 26-10 victory over Northwich.

Burn outmuscled Northwich upfront as they dominated the scrum which made it hard for the Cheshire side to build any significant pressure, the dominance took its toll on Northwich in the second half and this allowed Burn to keep the score regularly ticking over.

The pitch was heavy, but it was great to get a game considering the recent poor weather. Burn had the first chance of a try, but Harry Pilkington spilt a cross field kick, had he gathered it he would have had a try. However, Burn didn’t need to wait long for the opening try as on 8 minutes Ed Sinclair burrowed his way over the try line. Burn had been on top in the pack and got a shove on from a 5 metre scrum, Corey Logan initially went for the line, but was stopped short before Sinclair gathered the ball and went low to score. Leon Fifield was unable to kick the conversion. Northwich hit back on 13 minutes, they had controlled the ball well as they worked their way up the pitch, a penalty then enabled them to kick to the corner. From the line out Burn stopped the drive for the line, but then the Northwich scrum half took the ball to nip in to touch down. The conversion was missed. After this Northwich kept play in the Burn half, but didn’t threaten too much. Burn then managed to spend more time in the Northwich 22, despite several attempts Burn were unable to breach their opponents defence. As the half was closing out Burn were awarded a penalty after getting the better of Northwich in a scrum, this was to become a common theme in the game. The penalty gave Leon Fifield a chance to kick at goal from 40 metres out which he duly took. This made the half time score 8-3.

Burn extended their lead with another Fifield penalty after just 2 minutes of the second half. Burn then continued their dominance in the scrum and this gave them another 3 points as Leon Fifield kicked a penalty from 35 metres out, a Northwich prop was also shown a yellow card. Strangely this benefited the visitors as the game went to uncontested scrums, this gave them some relief from the pounding in the scrum and they managed to spend some time in the Burn 22, but the home sides defence held up. During the sin bin Burn were left with trying their luck from a penalty around the half way line, while Fifield had the distance the ball just went wide of the post. With numbers even again, Burn resumed the upper hand and were awarded another penalty from a scrum on 62 minutes and this saw the Northwich number 8 being sent to the sin bin. Penalties continued to come with Burn electing to kick to the corner and on 65 minutes they had their second try, they caught and drove through Corey Logan, Rob Bramhall drove on again, the ball was then quickly recycled and feed to James Henderson who crashed over. Leon Fifield was unable to add the extra points, but Burn still lead 19-5. 10 minutes later Burn had another try, Danny Booth had managed to charge down a clearance kick from the Northwich 22 and Burn then bundled the covering Northwich player into touch. From the lineout the initial drive was stopped, but Joe Shorrock took the ball and went straight on to score. Leon Fifield excellently kicked the conversion from the far right touch line to extend Burn’s lead to 26-5. After this much of the play was in the Burn half as they conceded a string of penalties, this saw Rob Bramhall receive a yellow card in the closing minutes and this helped Northwich to pressure Burn and the visitors did well to keep possession and eventually create space out wide enabling them to score a consolation try. The conversion was missed and the game ended 26-10.

This was another impressive performance from Burn, last week they beat third in the league and today second, this shows how far they have come since the rocky start to the season. They are playing as a unit and results are reflecting this. Next week they travel to Burnage where it is always a tough place to win.