Burntwood RUFC climbed two places in the league table after a close-fought 8-3 win over Wednesbury.
A biting wind made handling moves in the backs a rarity so it was left to the forwards to match up to a big visiting pack and they more than stood up to the test.
Play in the opening quarter was confined to the area between the 22s with both sides vying for the advantage. The home side looked to have broken the deadlock on 22 minutes with what proved to be the best attack of the match.
Ben Holt, Zak Shingler and Graham Shelley all featured in a sweeping move to send winger Jordan Douglas racing for the bottom corner. Despite being closed down by two defenders he seemed to make the try line only for the score to be disallowed by an unsighted referee. Instead, Burntwood were awarded a scrum five metres out. Possession was moved out to the backs and Wednesbury infringed but Aza Dune’t’s kick at goal slid to the left of the target.
From the restart the visitors were penalised again to present Dune’t with a more difficult chance but this time his kick was to the right of the posts.
Wednesbury finally put serious pressure on the home defence following a midfield break by their outside half. His long pass out to the right was dropped but his forwards camped in the home 22 in the five minute period up to the break.
The hosts did well to keep the half scoreless, twice turning the ball over at set pieces to keep the visitors out.
Wednesbury had their first kick at goal four minutes into the second half when the hosts pulled down a maul but still the scoreboard was untroubled as the kick was wide left and Holt cleared.
Burntwood had the better of the play up to the hour mark prompted by a couple of half breaks by Holt and a good touch kick by Dune’t from a penalty award before they finally opening the scoring. Brett Taylor had already tried one chip over the visitors’ defence for himself to chase but the bounce eluded him. When the opportunity came again shortly afterwards he chose to chip wide for Douglas to gather on the run and he darted in for a slickly-taken try – his first for the first XV.
Adventure got the better of the home side after 65 minutes. They tried to run a tapped penalty out of their own half but the attempt not only cost them three points courtesy of a penalty goal but they also lost lock forward Hal Gozukucuk to a leg injury.
Going into the last ten minutes the Wednesbury pack threatened again but the home forwards turned possession over and cleared the danger.
With five minutes left Burntwood had good field position following another fine touch kick by Dune’t. Amrit Derry’s burst from line out possession caught Wednesbury offside and their hooker was sin binned. Dune’t’s penalty attempt was just right of the target but he made sure in the second minute of time added on with a successful kick from the 22.
With a second player in the sin bin, Wednesbury had one play from the restart to steal an unlikely win but they infringed again and the ball was cleared to touch to end a contest which was captivating despite the low scoreline.
This Saturday (March 16) Burntwood hope to climb another place in the table when they welcome basement side Cleobury Mortimer to The Sportsway for a twice re-arranged league fixture. Fixtures for the other senior sides are TBA.
