There is the small matter of a Boxing Day derby at Rovers to come (weather permitting of course!) but as far as rugby at Brinkburn is concerned, this year has seen plenty of success, with only a defeat to Lymm back in October blotting an otherwise perfect winning record.

Today's victory over Burnage won't stand out for it's scoreline but the manner of the win was impressive in the fact it was earned through sheer hard work and determination. In heavy conditions we had most of the fist half possession but rarely looked like penetrating the solid Burnage defence, which was well organised and hardly missed a tackle. Aside from a kickable penalty turned down in the opening stages we didn't turn our possession into point-scoring opportunities and that was credit to the defensive work-rate of the visitors rather than our own mistakes.

On a rare foray into our 22 it was the visitors who opened the scoring with half an hour gone thanks to a well worked rolling maul which never looked like being stopped and resulted in a simple touch down for hooker Martin Vernon by the right corner-flag.

Stu Waites pushed a penalty attempt wide 7 minutes into the second half but we got level through a try from Michael Taylor 10 minutes later. The forwards had good success with the pick and go following a line out in the 22 and inching closer and closer to the line it was eventually Taylor who made the final thrust and claimed the try. Waites had a difficult afternoon from the kicking tee and having missed a very kickable conversion he saw another penalty drift wide on the hour, albeit from much longer range.

Burnage's strong running centre partnership of Stuart Oldham and Adam Knight caused us plenty of problems all afternoon but our second try was something of a reward for the defensive effort we'd made. A big tackle forced the ball loose on half way and Scott Butcher hacked the ball up the touchline. The winger looked to be in for the try having won the foot-race but stumbled as he collected the ball and was stopped just short. Thankfully as the ball was recycled, Greg Edwards was able to stretch over and give us the lead.

Into the final five minutes we made the game safe with another try from turnover ball. This time up the left touchline it was Andy Cheslin who broke away, he fed inside to Andrew Foreman who in turn tried to find Liam Bailey but the pass was just behind the hooker and allowed the defence to catch up with him. We weren't to be denied though as moments later Anth Carr crashed over for our third try.

We pushed for the bonus point in the closing stages, at one point rolling a maul from outside the 22 right up to the line, but ultimately couldn't get over and had to settle for a hard earned four points.  


West: Waites, A Cheslin, Edwards, Watson, Butcher, G Foreman, A Foreman, Carr, Bailey, Coates (Wood), T Dixon, Davies, Taylor, D Boatman, Gilmour (J Boatman).
Rep not used: C Cheslin

Tries: Taylor, Edwards, Carr.

Burnage: Korneki, Mort, Oldham, Knight, Wellock, Jennings, Townsend, Williams, Vernon, Keane, Bowen, Edge, Lynn, Moore, Hewitt.
Reps: Stock, Redmond, Blaney

Try: Vernon