U15s 17 Burnham U15s 19

Another loss for Brentwood…

It started, to put it in simple terms, horrifically for Brentwood. Burnham kicked off, everybody completely missed the ball, and it was hacked on by a Burnham player and dived on over the try line all in the space of about 3 seconds of the whistle being blown. The conversion from in front of the posts was scored, 7-0 Burnham.

It took a while but Brentwood slowly started to wake up with their best passage of play coming from a break by Adam from a good dummy and a good follow on run from Miles.

Around half way through the first half the RTPs (Raving Touchline Parents) started getting irate again as another overlap was butchered with the pass being about 4 miles behind Jordan rather than into his hands. Miles, however, did extremely well to save the situation with some neat stepping finding him some almost non-existent space, which he exploited to score in the corner. The conversion missed, 7-5 to Burnham.

Another disastrous restart nearly cost Brentwood another try but fortunately the scrambling Brentwood defence got back and managed to clean up. A good run from William through the centre got the Burnham defence back peddling but just when things were starting to look good Brentwood lost the ball in contact. In an attempt to rectify the situation Brentwood managed to force a bad kick to touch by Burnham and gain a lineout just inside the 22.

The lineout was taken cleanly and swiftly zipped out to James standing at centre who went straight through the Burnham defence. Although there was one hairy moment when he very nearly dropped the ball over the try line (yes we saw you!) he remained composed and dotted down underneath the posts. Adam kicked the conversion, 12-7 Brentwood and the ball returned covered in green gunk from the swamp/river thing behind the posts. Fortunately the half time whistle was blown allowing sufficient time for the ball to be cleaned up, well we wouldn’t want the backs to get their kit dirty now would we?

The second half started off with coach Ian and ringleader of the RTPs being reprimanded by the referee for trying to ref from the touchline. Now remind me again how much trouble the boys get in for dissent…Despite this Brentwood started the second half brighter than they had the first, getting deep into Burnham territory pretty quickly. Although they conceded a penalty Billy pulled off a goalkeeper-esque save to prevent it going in to touch and then made a good run to boot. With pressure building from Brentwood and James making good yardage the RTPs were somewhat annoyed when a disputable penalty was given against Brentwood.

The boost of successfully keeping Brentwood out in spite of the pressure they had showed in the next phase of the game as a combination of pathetic tackling on Brentwood’s part and good running from Burnham saw Burnham go over underneath the posts. The conversion was knocked over, 14-12 to Burnham.

This time though it was Burnham’s turn to completely miss the restart catch. A great pick up from Billy off the floor and good support from the rest of his forwards put Brentwood straight back on the front foot. James took it on through the centres to make more ground and enough room for Chris Doble to charge through and score. The conversion missed, 17-14 to Brentwood.

Could Brentwood finally close out one of these close games that have just been slipping away from them recently? Not if Burnham had their say. They regained possession and kept the ball well, keeping composed, and with the pressure mounting and mounting managed to find a way to squeeze over. The conversion was missed but it gave Burnham the 19-17 lead they wanted and shortly after the full time whistle was blown. Another loss for Brentwood and a better performance will be needed against Romford to stay in the Essex Cup.

As an aside I would just like to apologise for the lateness of this report but due to excessive amounts of homework this week I had to prioritise. Feel free to complain to the school