Sat 16 Sep 2023
Burnage v WPRFC
16th September 2023 – Burnage break Parks Hart in defeat
Burnage 45 – 19 WPRFC
This week Park travelled to new to the league Burnage who moved down from level 5 last season and the chance to play on the 4G pitch. Park welcomed some new faces into the fold with league debuts for Richard Hart, Mike Gough, Dan Davenport, Trystan Vickery, Sam Blears and Jordan France.
Park kicked off and following a lineout were immediately under pressure from a Burnage break through the midfield, but the ball was intercepted, and Park cleared their lines. Burnage continued to exert pressure on Park with strong running and within 3 minutes were on the scoreboard with a converted try (7-0). Burnage looked to be the more settled team in the early exchanges and extended their lead on 9 minutes with a penalty (10-0). Unfortunately, on 10 minutes, Richard Hart took a quick tap just outside the 22 and got tackled 5 metres and sustained a broken foot which brought his debut to an end after a few minutes which forced Park to reshuffle the team. Burnage kept the pressure on and were persistent in attack, but Park worked hard in defence and but within two minutes Park had a penalty and a shot at goal which Benny Elliot scored (10-3) for Burnage being offside. Park continued to work hard in defence as Burnage continued to pressure Park in attack, but Burnage indiscipline gave Benny Elliot another shot at goal on 16 minutes which was converted and another 2 minutes later which went wide (10-6).
Burnage took advantage of territory when ever they could and pinned Park back with their kicking game but on 22 minutes a neat little chip over by the Burnage fly half was collected and then one pass to the supporting centre and scored their second converted try (17-6). Burnage were looking very strong, but Park put together a fantastic attack and a great try on 30 minutes off a lineout with two very strong runs from Jake Cornwell and Tom King and then a great run from Charlie Hyde from our 10-metre line to score a great unconverted try in the corner (17-11). Burnage suffered from indiscipline and had three yellow cards in quick succession which stunted their game but unfortunately Park could not capitalise on this with any tries but converted a penalty just before half time to bring the score to within 3 points (17-14).
Half time score 17 - 14
The second half got underway with both Park and Burnage working hard in both attack and defence and the game was at a stalemate for the first 10 minutes of the second half with both sides not being able to convert any points. On 50 minutes Park had a great opportunity with a scrum in the Burnage 22 and the scrum was won cleanly and Benny Elliot picked up from 9 and passed out to James Weeks who kicked the ball through for Trystan Vickery to chase and he picked the ball up and used his strength in contact to carry the ball over the line and score on his debut an unconverted try (17-19) and put Park ahead for the first time in the game. That was to be the only points that Park were going to score this half and unfortunately Burnage put in a solid second half performance to score four tries and take a bonus point win. Park showed glimpses of what they could do but we could not quite convert any opportunities.
On reflection it was a game of two halves and Park had to reshuffle the team a few times due to injury and adapt to playing on the 4G surface but credit to Burnage who provided the home crowd with a good win. There were some good points to take away from the game with some really strong performances in both the forwards and backs, but we could not quite convert to points and take this as a learning point and hopefully take the points in the home game.
Final score Burnage 45 – 19 WPRFC
Team: Charlie Hyde, Dan Davenport, James Woods, James Weeks, Tom Merrick, Benny Elliot, Richard Hart, Tom King, Mike Gough, Ross Morrin, Jake Cornwell, Matt Treacy, Liam Gough, Luke Westgate, Dan Williams, Sam Blears, Jordan France and Trystan Vickery
