Performance of Pride, Sin bin of Shame

The home side had clearly fielded a team of mainly 1st teamers whilst Leo’s were able to welcome the Macca and Tom B to the fold, hoping their more senior forays could unlock the home sides defence, but apart from that it was the usual 3rd and 4th squad members who shuffled out into the driving rain. Skipper CJ won the toss and elected to play up the slope.
For the first twenty minutes it was hard to tell which team played one division below Leo’s 1sts and which was the melange of social players. The pack, with James P, Cranners and Carl to the fore took the ball into contact and were driven forward by the support of Onslow, Scotty and Rhett as the home side were on the back foot and Macca given plenty of time and ball. Excellent recycling and lines of running was constantly repelled by the well drilled and strong tackling home defence as The Bishop failed to bash through and GI Joe kept out. The pack upped their driving but was battling against a slope and heftier home side who could maul with aplomb. Eventually a good catch and drive resulted in Macca being forced over the line only for the unsighted referee to deny the try, despite no Burley players anywhere to be seen. The contest ebbed and flowed but neither the mauling forwards nor the boshing backs could make the telling break against a superior defence. Burley ran good lines and had planned moves to bewilder the visitors and a slick move resulted in a try under the posts just before the break.
Turning to play down the hill a cunning game plan was devised involving kicking the ball into the river, or at least the nettles, allowing Tom G to snaffle lineout ball and play as much as possible in the bottom corner. Burley had other ideas and relished the uphill battle. The breakdown became more ferocious and CJ took one for the team which resulted in a binning for the Burley 8. Leo’s had more possession and territory but couldn’t work the gap to score.GI Joe made a superb break but was tackled yards short and too far from support. The pack picked and drove like maniacs but was kept out by fair means and foul with Carl on the receiving end of a shoulder charge from the returned Burley 8 who was allowed to continue. The game was played in excellent spirit but as the level of grumbling increased the referee sent the Burley hooker off for a rest and Leo’s threw themselves into the final quarter looking to equalise. The only equalisation that occurred was when Carl was blocked by guess who? the Burley number 8, whinged to the tetchy referee, and was sentoff to the bin. Leo’s 4th XV’s first binning of the season. During Carl’s rest Burley scored two more skilfully worked tries, and Leo’s ran out of gas to be nilled for the only time this season.
Revenge was sweet after this ferocious battle as the raffle was secured and then Onslow and CJ trounced the home side in the mini boat race.