A Case of Boys Versus Men at Lightfoot Green

It was a tough day at the office for Burn as they travelled to Lightfoot Green to play a strong Hoppers team that are riding high in the league.

With a large number of players absent through call ups to the first team, injury and illness, Burn once again had to turn to the exuberence of youth over the experience of senior players. It was always going to be a tough introduction to senior rugby derby games against Preston.

The game started well for Burn and when we had possession of the ball we looked to use it wide and stretch the large and powerful Preston team around the pitch. Unfortunately as the game went on Blackburn's willingness to throw the blass around led to players repeatedly getting isolated and the ball being turned over leading to dangerous possession for Hoppers. As the first half progressed Preston began to dominate with some charging runs through the forwards and after 20 minutes Burn were 8-0 through a try and a penalty.

As the half progressed territory and possession became increasingly hard to come by with Preston taking command of the game. Good clean ball going forward was sparce and all too often promising moves fizzled out with knock on's and turn overs. Burn did manage to string one attack together in the first half coming about with good hands through the backs leaving Ben Fox to crash over in the righ hand corner. A missed conversion and the score was 8-5. Preston rallied themselves and scored another converted try before half time leaving the score at the half way point at 15-5.

After a strong talking to at half time, the Burn boys believed they were still in with a chance of the match if they could retain possession and move the ball through the hands rather than trying to take Preston on through the massive pack.

Sadley the second half proved to be a long attritional half with very few moments of joy for Burn. The large Preston pack kept the ball deep in the Blackburn half and time after time tried to punch holes through both the forwards and back line. As well as conceeding numerous tries the Burn lads were clearly taking a beating and injuries were coming thick and fast.

The Burn lads should take heart from a gritty second half performance in which they stuck to the task and defended for large amounts of time. We did manage to score two tries in the second half despite Prestons dominance. The first saw once again the ball being moved wide through the backs eventually with Liam Murray showing some individual skill to run past three players before standing the Preston full back up with a great side step to score out wide - a great individual piece of skill after being trampled over by the Preston pack earlier in the half. The second try, scored by Tom Samuels came from a Preston mistake in midfield where the ball was spilt leaving Tom to pick up cleanly and sprint unchallenged under the posts to score. The try was converted by Nick Archer.

The Burn lads were happy to hear the final whistle blow as it had been a very hard game that had taken its toll on many of the team. There were a few pleasing points to take from the match: the second half resilliance shown in defence and the introduction of another two colts players to the second team.

Going forward the team will have to learn to play games to their strengths and adapt the game plan to overcome tough opposition and win games. It will have served as another important experience for many of the 8 colts players that played for the team in this game. More training and the return of senior players next week should hopefully see a return to winning ways at home to De la Salle in the cup. Roll on next week.