Halifax Vandals II vs Burley II
15th December 2007
1 Kelvin Crooks 2 Tom Barnes 3 Alex Williams
4 Rob Stone 5 Stuart Nichols
6 Karl Haywood 7 Matt Bradley 8 Jim Griffin
9 Jonny Baker
10 Tim Betts
11 Danny Morell 12 Gav Leeman 13 Elliot Viles 14 Andy Taylor
15 Jamie Chique
The Bench
17 Pete Shaw
A very very cold day indeed saw some cry offs from the weaker members of both Burley's first and second teams. The first team took just 16 players to Garforth where they were victorious and the second team also took 16 to the highest point of Halifax where the ground was hard, men are men and sheep are scared.
It was a sad and very emotionall day at Halifax as the Vandals had just tragically lost one of their best players and valued friend in a road accicedent less than a week previous to our visit.
There was respect shown in a minute's silence before kick off, with some 27 players lining up to take the field in the blue and white hooped shirts.
The game started with a low grubber kick from Chris the Vandals skipper and number ten. It was collected by Karl Haywood who was trying his hand at playing in the back row this weekend and making a very good job of it too. The Vandals came at Burley all guns blazing with strong hard tackles and it was clear they wanted this a little more than the Burley Boys. After 15 minutes Burley were behind 17-3 after Tim Betts had slotted over a great penalty kick to get the visitors off the mark. Burley put their heads together and all decided that we were now going to start playing and stop just watching the home team taking it turns to run at us.
Burley then lined up a little more fire in their bellies and as the Vandals ran at us it was they soon knew that this match was far from over. Matt Bradley, Rob Stone and Jim Griffin tag teamed their big prop and took him to the hard icy ground with a thud. Some great running from the centres Gav Leeman and Elliot Viles, who also brought into play full back Jamie Chique and wingers Danny Morell and new boy debutee Andy Taylor. Burley had the better of the scrums with hooker Tom Barnes winning three, maybe four from against the head, and power houses Kelvin Crooks, and Pete Shaw in the second half, and Alex Williams (Man of the Match) dominating their opposite props and even making them squeal on the odd occasion. Scrum half Jonny Baker had his usual outstanding game and made life for the Vandals number nine very hard indeed - harassing him at tail of the scrum and fighting him off with ease at our end earned himself a second place slot for the Man of the match pint.
Although Burley had just over an hour trying and dominating, the visitors just couldn't get over the whitewash and it was made harder by the Vandals understandably putting on fresh legs every couple of minutes to make sure that all 12 subs got a good run out in this very memorable game.
The final result was 17-3 to the Vandals and the game was played in fantastic spirit from start to finish.
Burley RUFC offer their sincere condolences to the family, friends and team mates of the young player who lost his life.
J.Griifin