Burnham RFC U12s v Old Brentwoods U12s

The Under 12s travelled to Burnham on Sunday in conditions that were markedly different from last year. Gone was the freezing horizontal rain, to be replaced by a beautiful autumn day. Perfect conditions for playing rugby.

As for the U 12s, various injuries and other unfortunate circumstances had taken its toll on the squad, depriving the team of several players. Further, Jason was laid up with an illness, so it was a most inauspicious start to proceedings.

In the end, a combination of tenacity, courage, Nathan’s quick thinking, and a huge slice of luck in the last play of the match saw the boys draw the match at 6 tries each. With the exception of Ross, the Burnham team was generally a bit bigger than our boys, and they were complimented with some quick runners as well.

Burnham opened the scoring before Monty ran in a great solo effort to open his account for the club, and his team. Well done Monty, the first of many no doubt. next to cross the line having received the ball in his half was Harry. A sensational run saw Harry beat several Burnham players for pace down the left wing. Unfortunately, having made several huge tackles, Harry took a knock to the head and had to sit out part of the game.

Ross scored two memorable tries, one of which seemed to verge on the impossible given the amount of Burnham players trying to bring him down.

The match came down to the last play just after Burnham had gone ahead. Burnham received the ball, but instead of taking a team mate’s advice to kick the ball into touch the Burnham player opted to run it back at the OBs. That decision proved costly as the OBs recovered the ball at the breakdown and made a late surge for the line. They were stopped a couple of metres short. James Mac was unmarked about 4 metres from the breakdown screaming for the ball. All he had to do was catch it and fall over the line. OBs didn’t take that option, instead opting to run into contact. The ball was lost, the referee blew the whistle, the game was lost.

Except it wasn’t. Some of us hadn’t realised the referee was playing an advantage. Nathan had listened to his dad, and while Burnham were trying to organise themselves, took a quick tap, and flew past the bewildered Burnham boys to score and level the match. A real scrum half’s try.

It was a great game, both sides gave it there all. As for the passing, or rather the lack of it, there is nothing more to say than has been said before by the coaches, and reiterated in match