Tribute Western Counties North

Burnham 37 Avon 19

BURNHAM moved up to fifth in Western Counties North after recording a consummate victory over their Bath based opponents.

Matt Love scored a hat-trick for the home side and there were further tries for Jack Pope, Beau Dickens and Russell Pike – Wills Conway kicked seven points.

The match was nip and tuck for the first 10 minutes, until Muskett created space for Matt Love to muscle over in the corner.

Avon responded with a penalty straight away when Burnham were penalised for a high tackle.

But back came Burnham to land a penalty of their own through Conway, before Avon retaliated with another penalty to close the gap.

With Burnham down to 14-men, Avon moved the ball wide to score in the corner to send the sides into the break at 15-14.

In the second-half Burnham upped the ante and after pressurising Avon, Pike slotted a neat grubber kick through the gap for Jack Pope to race through and touchdown in the corner.

Burnham kept up the pressure and after a quick tap penalty, the ball was whipped out to Love to score in the corner.

Next an Avon charge was halted by Burnham's pack, collected by Wikiteria who rocketed up the centre before timing the perfect pass for Beau Dickens to finish off.

Avon tried to create some pressure, but a promising move was snuffed out when Muskett read the play, intercepted, shipped it on to Dickens who promptly spotted Love steaming up on the outside to claim his hat-trick.

Avon were not quite finished and after a penalty lineout, they produced two quick phases to score out wide.

Burnham, however, had the last word - exerting enough pressure to allow Pope to wriggle through the defence before offloading to Russell Pike to crown a man of the match performance and score close to the posts.