Gordano 17 - Burnham 22

1st Half
Gordano started brightly and immediately put Burnham under pressure, winning a number of penalties at the breakdown and showing dominance at the scrum. With the penalty count heavily against them, Burnham were soon down to 14 men after one of their players was shown a yellow card for going off their feet at a ruck and Joe Rowsell – Gordano’s Fullback – found touch on Burnham’s 5m line. Sharks immediately took advantage of the one-man advantage when, from the line-out, Number 10 Rory Biggins found Gordano’s left wing Sam Hodge, who picked a great angle through Burnham’s defence and went under the posts. Hodge then converts his own try, to make the score 7-0.
Despite Gordano’s impressive start, they failed to push on and were soon made to pay when they switched off whilst defending a Burnham penalty on half-way, allowing Burnham to take it quickly and make an easy 20 metres. It looked like Gordano’s scramble defence had managed to stall Burnham’s attack before the referee ruled that Owen Abbott, wearing Gordano’s 13 jersey, had played the ball on the floor at a ruck and gave him 10 minutes in the sin-bin to think about his actions. Burnham, encouraged by their recent spell of possession and the Gordano sin-binning, elected to kick for touch and from the resulting 5-metre lineout their forwards managed to drive over in the corner. Burnham’s goal kicker missed the tricky conversion, leaving Gordano 7-5 up.
Burnham cleanly fielded the restart and started to bring their big ball-carriers in to the game, taking play deep in to Gordano’s half. Burnham’s number 8 eventually went under the posts for his team’s second try, following some suspect Sharks tackling. Burnham knock over the easy conversion making the score 12-7 in their favour at half-time.

2nd Half
At 12-7 down, Gordano were determined to get the next score and wrestle back the momentum of the game away from their opponents. However, knock-ons, forward passes and indiscipline at key moments disrupted the rhythm of their game. It was a moment of indiscipline that gave Burnham the chance to score their third try of the match. Penalised at the break-down on their own 10 metre line, Gordano were then marched back for back-chat – something which Gordano were guilty of twice in the second half – and Burnham took full advantage, with a kick for touch landing on the 5 metre line. Gordano’s pack then elected to not compete at the line-out but mistimed their efforts to counter Burnham’s drive, which allowed their pack to power over and take the score to 17-7.
Whilst Gordano were still making too many errors for their liking, they still managed to find an immediate way to close the gap and make it a one-score game. With Burnham playing deep in their own half, Gordano’s second row Jack Thomas hit a Burnham ball carrier with enough power to dislodge the ball, before kicking the ball to within inches of Burnham’s try-line. Matt Stevens, showing impressive speed for a hooker, outpaced Burnham’s defenders and took the loose ball over for Gordano’s second try of the game. Hodge was unable to add the extras. 17-12.
With the score so close, it was imperative that Gordano did not allow Burnham any more easy points. However, Gordano were soon caught out following a ruck on their 22. The Burnham Scrum half identified that his team had numbers down the blindside and their right winger eventually stepped his way past some would-be Gordano defenders for his team’s fourth try. The Burnham kicker missed the conversion from out wide, leaving the score at 22-12.
Now fighting time and a 10-point deficit, the Gordano players knew that they needed to do something fast if they were to get their first win of the season. It was the fast-thinking of Joe Rowsell that gave Gordano a life-line. Noticing that Burnham had switched off after conceding a penalty on their own 10 metre line, Joe Rowsell took the penalty quickly before fielding his own chip over the defence and going over unopposed just left of the posts. Hodge was unable to convert the kick, leaving Gordano 22-17 behind with just over 2 minutes remaining. Despite successfully gathering the restart, a couple of knock-ons prevented Gordano from completing the fight back and allowed Burnham to hold on for a 22-17 victory.
Whilst Gordano’s players looked visibly frustrated following the final whistle, they can take heart in the character they showed in continually finding a way to hit back after conceding a score and the way in which their front-row gave them a very good platform to work from. Their backrow was also impressive with flankers Kaine Southey and Jack Quick both topping the tackle count with 12 tackles each. Quick also won a number of key turnovers at both the lineout and breakdown area.