Burntwood RUFC’s final home league match of the season went the way of the form book with top of the table Veseyans taking all five points.
The visitors dominated the set pieces as shown by four of their five tries coming from line out catch and drives orchestrated by No 8 Zak Feaunati, the ex Bath and Samoan international.
The hosts’ enjoyed periods of promising play, particularly in the second half but having worked their way into threatening positions, they either turned the ball over through infringements or handling errors.
Their only points of the afternoon were the first of the match, a penalty goal by Will Peach after just two minutes.
Veseyans showed their power in the set piece by disrupting a Burntwood scrum two minutes later to earn a penalty which was goaled to level the scores. Two more penalty attempts followed in the next ten minutes but both were off target so the visitors chose to kick for the corners instead.
This tactic paid off after 16 minutes with the first of their catch and drives for a try in the clubhouse corner. A successful conversion made it 10-3.
With all the play in the home half, the Burntwood defence did well to keep the high-flying visitors out but another penalty kick, this time to the bottom corner, produced the second drive over from a line out and the conversion stretched the lead to 17-3 on 28 minutes.
Just four minutes later and Veseyans were at it again in the clubhouse corner. Burntwood’s chances of keeping them out were reduced when Josh Bayliss was sin binned for pulling the first driving maul down. The second drive was finished off by Feaunati himself. The conversion took the score to 24-3 and it stayed that way up to half time with the hosts defending well to restrict further damage.
Early in the second period Burntwood survived another close range maul and began to build momentum in their own attacking play. They won a scrum against the put in and then a penalty award was kicked to the bottom corner. The ball wasn’t taken cleanly but they were awarded another penalty.
They decided to tap and go which produced another penalty but the award was reversed following a flurry of punches which saw Lloyd Shelley and Feaunati spend ten minutes on the touchline.
Veseyans scored their bonus point try on the hour mark. A well-worked move in the centres ended in a clean run to the line for the converted score.
Burntwood responded with their best spell of play in the match. They recycled possession well into the visitors’ 22 but the move ended with a knock on. Then another good attack initiated by a free kick award against Veseyans for feeding at a scrum ended with Burntwood being penalised and the visitors were able to clear.
The final score came from an unstoppable catch and drive from 20 metres out with ten minutes left.
Although there were no further scores the contest didn’t end without incident. With three minutes left the Veseyans tight head prop was given a straight red card for landing a punch on Shelley and then a minute later Craig Seedhouse was yellow carded for a swinging arm in the tackle.
The contest fizzled out in the remaining time, a bit like Burntwood’s season, to leave them in mid table while Veseyans look forward to rugby at Level 7 next season.
There were no fixtures for Burntwood 2nds and 3rds as both merit table games were called off by opposition.
Burntwood play their final league game of the season this Saturday (April 12) at Wednesbury with the second strings of each club meeting at The Sportsway for a merit table game.
This Sunday, Burntwood RFC host the county U15s Cup Finals Day with plate, shield and cup finals kicking off respectively at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Admission is free for what should prove to be an enjoyable day of rugby action.
