Burley RUFC

Burley traveled to Old Rishworthians in confident mood in spite of never having beaten their Halifax opponents on their own ground. Missing ever present Fly Half Richard Parrish with man flu (cold) Romanian Martin Zielinski moved to Fly Half with veteran Paul Wheeler filling in at Full Back. The kick off was delayed 25 minutes due to post protectors and corner posts locked away in a hut with no key available. Burley started the stronger and after 15 minutes forced Rishworthians to concede a penalty which Zielinski converted. More sustained pressure from the visitors created an overlap for flying French Winger Yann Le Beau who sped in from 10 meters. Rishworthians with 4 successive League defeats, but playing their full strength side where causing Burley some problems. A quick tap penalty sent their Centre clear but good defending by Le Beau stopped the Winger in the corner. Further Rishworthian pressure resulted in two penalty attempts, one of which was converted. At half time Burley led 8-3. The second half was the two defences cancelling each other out until a long kick by Zielinski was chased by Le Beau who over ran the ball, but the supporting Wheeler picked up and touched down out wide. Rishworthians came back strongly and Burley where unable to halt a rolling maul, resulting in the Full Back entering the line and scoring by the posts. With the conversion successful Burley now held a slender 13-10 lead. With 10mins remaining Burley had in form Centre Andrew Bissett yellow carded for a high tackle but held out for another league victory. Burleys last two away games have been extremely close affairs, showing all the teams in this league are capable of beating each other.