Sandal had the majority of possession and territory in this game, however somehow Burn managed to outscore them 3 tries to 2 and led with just 5 minutes to go, but a late penalty for Sandal gave them the win.
Burn were playing down the slope in the first half, despite this the home side dominated the early stages with most of the play in the Burn 22, but it was Burn who were first to put points on the board. On 10 minutes Scott Richardson made a break deep from his own half, he made it into the Sandal half before passing to Leon Fifield, he made more ground, but was brought down, however a penalty was soon awarded and Burn kicked to the corner, they caught and drove with Jack Edwards in control of the ball as Burn crashed over. Leon Fifield kicked the conversion. After this ill discipline started to set in for Burn, including talking back to the ref, but Burn were let off with two missed penalty kicks at goal by Sandal. Burn nearly made the home side regret this as Frankie Skofic broke from his own half, his long pass found Sam Gale who did well to try and hold of the covering defenders, but was finally put into touch 10 metres from the try line. Apart from when Burn managed to break out of their own half Sandal had most of the possession deep in Burn territory and finally on 26 minutes Sandal were rewarded as they kicked a penalty. They then followed this up on 31 minutes with their first try, they had kept the ball well taking the ball flat and just edging forward with each play before finally crossing to score out wide. The conversion was missed. Sandal soon had another chance to add points, from the restart Burn kicked it out on the full, from the scrum on the half way, Sandal went left, they were hauled down, but Burn were penalised and the Yorkshire side had another kick at goal, however luckily for Burn the kick landed short. On 36 minutes Sam Gale was shown a yellow card as Burn’s ill discipline continued. Despite being down a man Burn scored a great try on the stroke of half time, again starting in their own half Burn kept possession with phase after phase, with all the forwards involved with the odd back thrown in for good measure, as they edged into the Sandal half Scott Richardson broke free and just managed to show a clean pair of heels to the retreating defenders to score by the posts. Fifield added the extra points and Burn led 8-14 at half time.
At the start of the second half Sandal hit back, they turned Burn over before spreading the ball side to side before sneaking low to score. The conversion was well kicked and the score was now 15-14. Leon Fifield did have a chance from a penalty kick to edge ahead again from 40 metres out, but it just drifted wide. After this Sandal dominated possession again, using the slope to their advantage as they kept Burn in their own 22, but were aided by the constantly increasing Burn penalty count. From penalties the home side kicked to the corners, but Burn defended well and managed to keep them out. However, when Sandal had a penalty in front of the posts on 62 minutes they elected to kick and took their lead to 18-14. Sandal continued to have the lions share of possession, however as the game entered the last 10 minutes it was Burn who scored next, again the try started in their own half, they had finally managed to get the ball off Sandal, as they worked their way into the Sandal half, Danny Maher off loaded to Tom Burtonwood, he broke free of the defenders, as he approached the 22 he drew the last man and passed to Greg Nicholls who ran on to score to the left of the posts. From the kick Leon Fifield hit the post, which turned out to be quite crucial, as soon Sandal were yet again awarded a penalty in front of the posts, this was kicked to make the score 21-19. Before the final whistle Burn tried hard to push for another score, but Sandal managed to keep them at bay and the game ended without any further points.
Based on possession, Sandal deserved to win this game, but yet again Burn showed their resilience and their ability to compete at this level and made it a closer game than potentially it should have been, had discipline been better, had kicks throughout the game been better, then Burn may have just sneaked this game. Despite Burn being on a bad run the losses have been close games and with better discipline, execution and more of the rub of the green they will get back to winning ways. However, the next game won’t be easy as they face the long trip up to Alnwick.