SWF II versus Burnham on Crouch

Saturday saw Burnham's first away game, and it happened to be a local derby at SWF. Burnham buoyed by an opening home win against Pegasus fielded a strong side, with a clear emphasis on bringing through their younger players. The day wasn't ideal being warm, and sunny and was played on a pitch which clearly was showing the after effects of a long Summer.
SWF started the better, and Burnham were asked to defend for a long period as SWF built in phase play using both forwards and backs. Inevitably the pressure told, and SWF came away with a try, but failed with the conversion attempt. Burnham's response eventually came, having again soaked up a lot of SWF pressure and with the defence standing strong, Burnham overturned possession, and were able to capitalise with a try scored by Tom Braybrook, and converted by Ben Bellchambers. The game continued with both teams providing stout defence and attack, SWF eventually capitalised and scored just before half-time, with a successful conversion. Half-time 12-7 in favour of SWF.
Burnham came out energised for the start of the second half, and within a minute of the restart caught SWF cold, exploiting their defence, and Tom Braybrook went over for his second try, and again converted by Ben Bellchambers. Burnham now had a slim two point advantage.
SWF gained a penalty after Burnham was penalised, and successfully converted to give SWF a slender one point lead. The game again rotated with both sides having possession and trading defence for attack. Burnham were again rewarded for some superb counter attack play with Tom Ford scoring under the posts, and with another successful conversion by Ben Bellchambers, Burnham were again in the lead 21:15. In fairness to SWF, they regrouped, and after making a decision to move to uncontested scrums, and with Burnham having their captain in the sin bin managed to score three tries and a conversion in the last 15 minutes.
Overall this was a great game to watch, both sides playing with great intensity, and certainly the return fixture looks like it could be a similar ding dong battle when Burnham host SWF later in the season.

Try scorers : Tom Braybrook (2), Tom Ford (1)
Conversions : Ben Bellchambers 3

Next Saturday Burnham host Bancroft in what could be another competitive game. Kick off 15:00.