Old Modernians II vs Burley II
5th January 2008
1 Kelvin Crooks 2 Tom Barnes 3 Matt Morgan
4 Rob Stone 5 Pete Shaw
6 Julian Broster 7 Aaron Ralph 8 Jim Griffin
9 Jonny Baker
10 Tim Betts
11 Karl Heywood 12 Gav Leeman 13 Elliot Viles 14 Danny Morell
15 Jamie Chique
The Bench
17 Jon Bowskill 18 Kenny Parsons
A cold windy afternoon on the northern edge of Leeds with a low watery sun occasionally peeking through the clouds is what greeted the second team as they lined up for the kick off. I'm not sure who won the toss but Burley played the first half with the very deceptive slope. From the start things looked promising with various sorties into the Old Mods half prompted by short chip kicks and probing clearances from Tim Betts and Jamie Chique. This was countered by Old Mods as they moved the ball wide in an attempt to get round the back of the Burley wings, patrolled very well by Karl Haywood and Dan Morrell. Both teams were playing some good open rugby and it was Burley who opened the scoring as big hits from Jules Broster and Rob Stone dislodged the ball from the Mods control allowing Gav Leeman to eventually receive the ball and canter in from around 20 yards. Tim pulled his conversion across the face of the goal to leave the score at 5-0. The score seemed to pull Mods into a faster game and for a short period of time they negated the effect of the slope and gained the upper hand. Burley produced some Stout defence with more big hits from Rob and Jules, and Matt Morgan being dominant in the tackle and maul as Burley came back into the game. The set pieces were going away from Burley especially in the lineouts, after winning the first few Burley lost out Big style only taking a further four or five in the remainder of the game, from these lineout successes Mods were happy to use the deft boot of big Stan to create many chip and chase situations in clearing their lines. Scrummaging was uncontested due to the Old Mods first team taking props on the morning of the game. As the first half continued Burley gaining in confidence scored a second try as they drove and mauled over the line with captain Jim Griffin directing things from 10 yards behind the back foot expecting a pop ball to be produced from the back, however driving from Pete Shaw and Rob Stone ably assisted by most of the pack took Jules over for a well deserved score by the right hand post. As Tim was lying on the 20yard line with an injury the conversion was made by winger Dan Morrell for a 12-0 lead. It looked as though Burley could hold out until the break however Mods put an excellent move together to create a try that had all the elements - good passing, fortune as a pass was dropped forward and regathered out of the referees gaze and a bit of poor tackling on Burley's part as the penultimate man led three would be tacklers out of position before releasing the try scoring pass. The conversion was missed and Burley led at the beak 12-5.
At the break Wing Dan Morrell and fullback Jamie Chique were replaced by a new recruit Kenny Parsons and Jon Bowskill respectively. There was a rather voiciferous team talk from Jim and expectations were there for an entertaining half of rugby. Old Mods started the half as Burley appeared to be still in the blocks and immediately levelled the score with a converted try under the posts. This started a procession of scores as Mods played their game at will with Burley chasing shadows Jules still managing to knock players over and keep the score somewhere near respect assisted by Rob Stone and Matt Morgan in some big tackles. The second half was aptly summed up when Stan the Old Mods stand off, received the ball from a scrum. He chipped over to where a winger should have been and the oldest player on the pitch almost reluctantly walked in to touch down, with Jim Griffin the only Burley player getting anywhere remotely near him.
Jules Broster was a worthy recipient of the man even if finishing the pint was a feeble effort and for his first half performance Gav just about earned the runner up. The referee had a very good game and allowed for plenty of advantage giving the game chance to flow which it did both ways in the first half.
D.Elsey