Sat 23 Nov 2024
Maldon made the short trip to Burnham on a very blustery, cold & drizzly day. The very strong wind was blowing down the pitch, so a ‘game of two halves’ was predicted by the faithful Maldon supporters who braved the weather. Maldon decided to play into the wind to start with.
Lots of pre-match talk about starting strongly & not allowing Burnham into the game went awry at the kick off as a dropped ball allowed Burnham into the Maldon 22 with a scrum in their favour. Within a few phases of possession Burnham made some space, waltzed through & scored for a 7-0 lead. Not the start Maldon wanted. But, Maldon responded well, pressurising Burnham from the kick off, being awarded their own scrum within a few minutes. Maldon ran strongly & Burnham defended strongly. Centre, Zak Knight, used power & good footwork to cross the line, converted by Joshua Chadwick, 7-7.
Using the conditions well Burnham, again, moved down the pitch. They were awarded a penalty which they kicked, 10-7. Maldon’s turn to score next. Strong work by many players linking together well & recycling well, Maldon moved the ball to George Alden-Smith, who fed centre Lewis Nichols, who crossed the line for an unconverted try, 10-12.
Burnham then used the conditions well, found some space & ran for the line. Some last ditch defence by Maldon kept Burnham out & Maldon managed to get back in numbers to prevent a try. Burnham kept the pressure on, however, & scored another converted try, 17-12. Also, scrum-half Olly Anthony was offside in the build-up to the try & the referee gave a yellow card for persistent infringements by Maldon.
Burnham capitalised on the numerical advantage, firstly kicking a penalty (20-12). Frustrations boiled over at the breakdown in a coming together of 2nd rows with Olly Lyons and his opposite number. The referee warned both players that he wanted such behaviour to stop or he’d issue cards & they’d be off the pitch. Obviously, Olly presumed another yellow & only heard the words ‘card’ & ‘off the pitch’. He then trudged disconsolately towards the touchline, only realising that he hadn't been given a yellow card when the crowd told him to stay on the pitch & get on with the game. Shortly after, the Burnham second row showed great pace to get past the Maldon defence, 27-12 to the home team. Nearing half-time, Burnham lost a player to a yellow card following a late, no arms tackle, evening the numbers up. Maldon took advantage of this to put Lewis Nichols in for his second try, again converted, 27-19 at half-time.
Maldon were confident at the break, as the wind was really strong & they were only 8 points behind. A clever kick-off forced a knock-on by Burnham, and then good territory & maintaining the ball well allowed prop George Perkins to use his strength to cross the line for a converted try, 27-26.
Maldon kicked well with the wind & defended well, as Burnham had to run everything due to the wind. All players showed powerful tackling & forceful running, crossing the gainline regularly. The scrum started to dominate too, putting Burnham on the back foot.
Once again, trying to run the ball, Burnham threw a speculative pass & Zak Knight intercepted it, immediately offloading to Lewis Nichols, in space, 55m from the try-line. Lewis then started to gallop with defenders closing in. Like a David Attenbrough documentary, Lewis resembled a giraffe being chased by hyenas hungry for dinner, with Burnham players desperately trying to pull him to ground. Nichols pushed off one defender, looked for support, but there was none there. He ran forward 10m only to be challenged by another defender/hyena, pushed him off too & looked for support, but still none to be seen. Running further towards the try-line, Lewis got rid of the final defender, then realised that he could make it to the sanctuary of the try-line, to score & reach safety. He scored, then rested for a long time afterwards, gasping for breath before returning to his teammates. The try was converted for a 27-33 lead.
Maldon continued to dominate territory, but were down to 14 again when Jim Roblin was given a yellow card for a high tackle. This didn’t stop Maldon, as they kicked the ball when in their own half & repelled Burnham with very strong defence. Burnham began to tire & Maldon’s superior fitness played a part. Olly Lyons immense power allowed him to run through some weak tackling to score a converted try, 27-40. The final try of the game saw Olly Anthony react quickly when Burnham fumbled the ball at the back of the scrum, kicking the ball half a metre over the line & touching down. Joshua Chadwick kicked his 6th conversion & Maldon extended their lead, 27-47.
The last 10 minutes saw Burnham trying to score a 4th try, to achieve a bonus point. But, Maldon finished the game off with good tactics & continuing their strong defence which meant they did not concede a point in the second half.
Maldon are now 3rd in the table, 4 points behind the leaders, but there are 4 teams separated by just 2 points.
Next week - no game, a well-deserved rest, before 3 matches in the run-in to Christmas
MAN OF THE MATCH
Lewis Nichols - a hat-trick of tries & plenty of strong running throughout the game.
