Longlevens RFC

Longlevens took a disastrous trip to the seaside on Saturday, losing to Burnham without really putting up a fight.

The conditions leaving Gloucester were very wet so a mud bath was expected, however on arrival at Burnham the sun was shining and the pitch was in excellent condition. The selected team was strong and the warm up was decent, all signs pointing to another victory for the Griffins, unfortunately they didn’t keep to the script.

The chat before the game was to go direct and keep penalties to a minimum, the first 10 minutes proved to be the opposite with Levens starting very slowly, losing possession and giving away penalty after penalty. This allowed Burnham to control the game and get on the score sheet in the left hand corner, 5-0.

The rest of the half was a dire affair, with penalties being conceded and possession being turned over at almost every ruck. Longlevens weren’t able to go beyond two phases and consequently the shape and structure was poor. Burnham finished the half 11-0 up, adding two penalties to their earlier score.

Despite the poor first half, and being 11-0 down, confidence was high that it could all be fixed in the second half, the boys had the wind and knew they could score if they could string phases together.

Unfortunately the second half was a carbon copy of the first, penalties and turnovers. Centre Tom Griffiths was the only real stand out player, he was making breaks at will but was unable to find the support needed at the crucial moments and Burnham were able to get a foot hold and score another penalty followed by a converted try, making it 21-0. With 15 minutes to go something seemed to click amongst the Griffins players, they built phases and managed to get behind the Burnham defence. From this pressure Brad Wilkins was able to score from a tap penalty bring the score to 21-7.

A glimmer of hope appeared and a concerted effort was made to score again, which they very nearly did, but mistakes crept in and Burnham were able to clear their lines, final score 21-7.

This was undoubtedly the worst performance seen from the Griffins for a number of years, but perspective is needed.

Clearly the players were undercooked from having five weeks off and they haven’t become bad players overnight. We are still very much in the hunt for the league title, with our destiny in our own hands. This will hopefully give us a wake up call and we will be back to winning ways next week.