BURNHAM’S superiority in the scrum was apparent early on and their excellent defence kept the visitors at bay.

Burnham scored first with some excellent quick passing, which ended with Rob Lewis smashing through three tackles to score an unconverted try.

Burnham lost winger Matt Love early on, but his replacement Phil Hobbs, made some perfectly timed tackles.

Fly-half Dave Harris extended Burnham’s lead with two penalties and some excellent scrummaging and rucking helped Burnham end the half 11-0 ahead.

Burnham started the second period strongly but gave away some foolish penalties.

The visitors took full advantage to open their account, with a try in the corner from a back, after some quick hands.

Burnham responded with a spell camped in the opposition 22.

After a series of scrums, one of them got heated and prop Slater and his opposite number were both sin-binned.

With both sides down to 14 men, Burnham responded better and Hobbs scored under the posts, with Harris adding the conversion.

St Bernadette’s applied plenty of pressure in the last ten minutes but Burnham kept their heads and held on for a very good victory.