Burley vs. Halifax Vandals 03/03/07
Burley entertained Halifax Vandals in a 1st versus 2nd clash. A win would secure the Yorkshire 5 NW championship...with three games still to play.
Missing Fly Half Ritchie Parrish( stuck in traffic on the A1) Burley had Martin Zielinski in his place with Henry Bisson reverting to Full Back, and James Palfrey-Smith in the Centre.
Playing towards the Abbey Burley immediately had Vandals on the back foot. A scrum on the visitors 22 saw Scrum Half Mark Walton break blind, using Winger Yann Cavaille as a foil, Walton went through a gap to touch down. Zielinski kicking a fine conversion.
Further pressure from the home side, with strong drives from Flanker Dan Johnson and 2nd row Richard Schmidt resulted in his 2nd row partner Mike Taylor crashing over.
Halifax were finding it difficult to gain any momentum, and another Burley attack had Centre Andrew Bissett putting a perfectly weighted kick for Frenchman Cavaille to touch down in the corner.
Back came Burley again and a dummy scissors between Zielinski, Palfrey-Smith and Bissett created an overlap for Cavaille to breeze in for his second score.
With the game 30 minutes old and a score line of 22-0 it looked like being a comfortable win for a rampant Burley.
The second period however was a complete reversal. The Vandals not wanting a whitewash took the game to a Burley side who seemed to be celebrating the win. Three unanswered tries and a conversion took the score to 22-17 with Burley hanging on.
The final score remained at 22-17 with another victory, and with it promotion to Yorks.4.
An excellent first half, but the second period was woeful.