Thirsk 1st XV V Burley 2nd XV
12th January 2008
1 Kelvin Crooks 2 Tom Barnes 3 Pete Shaw
4 Mark Sunderland 5 Alex Gerrard
6 Julian Broster 7 Dan Morell 8 Jim Griffin
9 Jonny Baker
10 Tim Betts
11 Karl Heywood 12 Gav Leeman 13 Elliot Viles 14 Jon Bowskill
15 Jamie Chique
After a very frustrating week with many cry-offs from both the first and the second team, the Burley first team were forced to travel to Knaresborough with only 16 players and the seconds up to Thirsk down to the bare bones of 15 including a new player (Mark Sunderland) who had never played with us before.
It was a very wet and muddy day and lots of rain fall the night before had soaked the pitch so in parts it was like a bog. Burley lost the toss and started the game with a kick off to the home team. The ball was collected sweetly by Thirsk number 12 and as soon as he hit the floor hooker Tom Barnes was all over him. Burley kept up the great defensive work with big hits coming from all the forwards including flanker debutee Dan Morell.
The visitors kept Thirsk quiet in their own half with sleek ball handling from Burley's Man of the Match Gav Leeman using his fellow centre Elliot Viles to make a gap for pace man Karl Haywood to charge up the field - only just being stopped by Thirsk number 13 and full back. At around the twenty minuet mark Burley went to sleep for about 10 seconds and as a result Thirsk opened the scoring with a nice catch and drive from a line out. They teamed up and powered their way other the line, leaving the Burley team shocked and suprised that they were the first to score. Number ten for Thrisk just skimmed the outside of the post leaving it 5 nil to the home team.
Eagerly wanting to put things right, Tim Betts put up a fantastic high kick which was brilliantly collected by Karl, over the pack went to form a platform for Burleys danger man Jonny Baker to spread it wide. Waiting was Burley's number six Julian Broster who took the ball aggressively into the home side's faces, wriggling, kicking and screaming Jules made great yards. But unfortunatly was not quite enough to get the burgandy and whites over the whitewash.
The second half saw more powerful runs from skipper Jim Griffin, front row legend Kelvin Crooks and second row hero Alex Gerrard, but with Thirsk replacing some players a very tired Burley team were now facing seven sets of fresh legs. We plodded on with new boy Mark Sunderland playing in the second row instead of his favored postion of centre charging up the field and showing the Thirsk team we hadn't finished trying yet. He then chipped through and caused the Thirsk full back to knock on under his own sticks. We formed the scrum and held it motionless brilliantly dispite being collectively thirty stones lighter that the eight lads opposite. Jim Griffin picked up from the back, drew in Thirsk's number 9 and number 10 before a cheeky back door pass released Scrum half Jonny Baker who clatteredd his way over the try line beating three players in the process.
Burley then spent the last 12 minuets of the game trying desperately to shrink the difference in the score line but when the final whistle went Burley had lost 17-5.
A great game was had by all and every member of the Burley team that travelled to Thirsk had a great day out and played some good rugby.
J.Griffin