Burnage 10 – 40 Lymm Report by Andy Leach
ON a day when the gale force winds battered the North West of England, Lymm travelled the short distance to neighbours Burnage.
Both teams should be congratulated that, despite the difficult conditions, they entertained the crowd with a match surprisingly low on errors. Praise must also go to referee Rayner who let the match flow, keeping his whistle out of sight and awarding only 10 penalties throughout the match – a penalty count which, usually, Lymm on their own are used to conceding in the first quarter! In the end Lymm ran out comfortable winners to record their second consecutive 5-point victory “on the road”.
With White, Kaihau, Dugdale and Knowles all unavailable from last time’s starting fifteen, there were call-ups for Horton at hooker; Higginson at No 8; Harris at centre; and Wells on the wing. With Baker retaining his starting position, after a strong showing off the bench last time, and positional changes for Halford and skipper Bray (taking up an unaccustomed position in the “boilerhouse”) the team had a different and even younger look – with an average age of 24. Rasheed and Shard were joined by Makin on the bench, who along with Harris was making his League bow for Lymm. These two debutants bring to 7 the number of last season’s Lymm U18 players who have now featured in Lymm’s National League 3 fixtures – a truly impressive accolade for that group of talented players and their coaches, and quite possibly unique amongst teams playing at this level across the country.
With the gale blowing across the pitch rather than from end to end there was little advantage from the conditions to either team. Lymm soon got on the scoreboard when, after 3 minutes, the Bray brothers effected a turnover from a loose Burnage pass, and followed it up with clever interplay which set Tom Bray free to run in from 40m. McEvoy slotted a difficult conversion to add the extras. 0-7
Indeed, one really pleasing aspect of Lymm’s performance was not only their ability to force turnovers but the manner in which they then made these count on the scoreboard.
After 15 minutes though, Lymm’s serene progress was jolted when, from a scrum 35m out, Burnage centre Oldham bust through an uncharacteristically weak Lymm midfield defence to race in for a try. Unfortunately for Burnage, Oldham picked up an injury in the act of scoring and soon after was forced to leave the contest. With the conversion missed, Lymm still had their noses ahead. 5-7
Lymm, got back on the horse soon after when, on 21 minutes, a Higginson break supported by Tom Bray, although not quite fulfilling its promise, did set up an attacking platform which allowed Halford joining the line in the centre to make the necessary yards and stretch out his long arms to score. The conversion miss proved to be McEvoy’s only failure with the boot all day. 5-12
Lymm then enjoyed a period of dominance, exerting continual pressure on the Burnage defence – Lancaster almost intercepting; Tom Bray and Harris both coming agonisingly close – which eventually, on 36 minutes, following a powerful surge from a 10m line-out, led to flanker Harper crossing the whitewash. 5-19
The second-half followed the pattern of the first. Possession was broadly shared equally between the teams but Lymm’s defence was much more capable of snuffing out any attacking enterprise from Burnage – which in the main came from their centres Simmonds and replacement Chappell. Lymm looked purposeful in attack, were tenacious at the breakdown and made those turnovers count.
On 50 minutes, Halford added his second, running an excellent line, after Lymm had turned-over the ball, to break the first line of the Burnage defence and gallop in from 60m. 5-26
Not to be outdone, 15 minutes later, Tom Bray added his second – an outrageous score, when having taken the ball into contact with three Burnage defenders, he emerged on the other side of the maul to break free and outpace the floundering defenders from 50m. A great score to cap a MOTM performance. 5-33
Lymm then scored the try of the game when, with 5 minutes left on the clock, from deep inside his own half Halford ghosted into some space, linked with Adam Bray who, following a showing of impressive pace, delivered an inch perfect pass off the wrong hand into the path of speedster McEvoy who ran in unopposed. 5-40
Credit to Burnage though, they never gave up and had the final say when centre Chappell crossed for a try on the final play. FT 10-40
Next Saturday Lymm are at home to Hull, KO 2.15
Team:
1) Jordan Widdrington, 2) Dan Horton, 3) Mike Auden, 4) Adam Bray ©, 5) Zak Lythgoe, 6), Jake Ashall,7) Jack Harper, 8) Ollie Higginson, 9) Tom Baker, 10) Oli Lancaster, 11) Richard McEvoy, 12) Tom Bray, 13) Callum Harris, 14) Mark Wells, 15) Richard Halford, 16) Rob Makin, 17) Aaron Rasheed, 18) Tom Shard
