Kirkby had already sealed the league title and were looking to go the whole season without a loss, if they thought that Burn would just turn up and roll over they were wrong. While Kirkby ultimately had a comfortable margin at the final whistle, there were parts of the game where Burn made the hosts uncomfortable as Burn refused to fold.

In the early stages Burn had quite a bit of the ball, but kicked too much possession away and on 10 minutes Kirkby made them pay as they caught and drove from a line out in Burn’s 22, at first Burn kept their opponents out, but the home side drove again to go over the line to score. After the try Kirkby kept pressing as Burn were regularly penalised, but Burn kept their opponents at bay bar a penalty to take the score to 8-0. But then Kirkby extended their lead on 25 minutes with their second try and it was all a little ease for them as from a scrum on half way the fly half went blind and found a space in the Burn defence, covering defenders were unable to bring him down, he then drew the final Burn man and passed to his teammate who had a free run to the try line. Kirkby were now 13 ahead and signs were looking ominous, however Burn came back at them and had their best spell of the game so far, they attempted to breach the Kirkby defence, but kept getting knocked down, although some knock-on’s also put pay to chances. Then on 35 minutes Burn finally had a try as Danny Maher managed to charge down the Kirkby’s scrum half kick from the base of a ruck, Maher then followed up and gather the ball to score in the corner. Leon Fifield then kicked the conversion superbly from the touch line. There were no more scores before the break, leaving the half time score 13-7.

In the early stages of the second half Kirkby had a man sent to the sin bin for a high tackle, this should have given Burn the advantage, but Burn were unable to score any points and on 51 minutes Kirkby went over the try line. They had gradually worked their way up the pitch into the Burn 22, as they went for the line Burn initially held them up, but from the 5 metre scrum they went for the line again, before a short pass to the blind side where the winger took the low pass and fell over the line. Burn came back at their opponents again, however Kirkby’s defence continued to hold strong and blunted Burn’s attacks and then attacked at the other end with their fourth try coming on 65 minutes. This made the score 23-7 to Kirkby. Again Kirkby could have run away and increased the score, but Burn managed to contain them and the game fizzled out with both teams unable to score any more points.

Burn had chances in the game, but just failed to grab them when they arose. Had this not been the last game of the season Burn would have kicked penalties at goal which would have kept the scoreboard ticking over and could have added further pressure on Kirkby, but Burn were there to try and play rugby in the season swansong, not kick penalties.

We say congratulations to Kirkby and wish them well for next season, while Burn should be content with their season, it was an improvement from last year, they will hope to retain and attract new players for the 2017-18 season and push on again.

Thank you to all those involved with the team, sponsors and all the loyal supporters, we hope to see you all next year.