RUGBY: Burnham-on-Sea sides suffer defeats to Devonport Services and Winscombe

BURNHAM slipped further into the relegation mire with a heavy defeat at high-flying Devonport Services in Western Counties West on Saturday.

The hosts scored seven tries to the visitors’ one, with the first of those coming after only three minutes when winger Ben Wadham went over.

Andrew Webb dotted down twice in the first half, with lock Andy Pond adding another, as Services took full advantage of their power in the pack.

Full-back Rhys Williams also touched down before the break, with Tim Piper’s penalty the only score of the first half for Burnham.

Piper added a second half try to his tally, but the visitors were powerless to prevent the second-placed side adding two more tries through Callum Perkin and Wadham.

Burnham are now five points adrift at the bottom of the table, and their cause was not helped by relegation rivals Crediton beating Chard, while Paignton shared the spoils with Kingsbridge.

A crunch game awaits Burnham this weekend, as they host second-bottom Falmouth in a game they really have to win if they are to kickstart their survival bid.

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Somerset 2 South
Burnham-on-Sea 2nds 22, Winscombe 2nds 50

BURNHAM were fizzing coming into this game following their monumental second-half comeback win over Chard last week.

However, it was Winscombe who came out of the starting blocks quickly, applying early pressure to take them deep into Burnham territory.

Burnham soaked up the pressure and were able to relieve their line with a great kick by fly half Lee Saunders.

The subsequent chase by Burnham felled the receiving Winscombe player, which forced the turnover, and the ball was passed out to left wing Tom Harris who thundered in to open the scoring, with the conversion by Mitch Kingston.

Winscombe came straight back into the game and some strong running from their number eight broke the gain line.

The subsequent maul set up by the forwards trundled over the Burnham line for a converted try - this was to prove a vital weapon for Winscombe as the afternoon unfolded.

Burnham did not get sucked into the Winscombe maul in the first half and used the boot of fly half Saunders to put their forwards back up the pitch.

Strong running by Adam Peters found good position off second phase ball to release Mason Shaw to score an unconverted try, but Winscombe responded quickly with another well worked score.

By this time Burnham had used their one replacement and were down to 14 men due to another injury and several no shows, leaving the team with the bare minimum, but a dogged display from Adam Peters allowed him to be on the end of a fine pass from Jamie Blyth to score a rare try.

Winscombe responded straight away again to score twice to make the score 17-24.

With the luxury of multiple replacements, the visitors made a number of key changes and for 35 minutes of the second half it became the Winscombe show.

However, Burnham were resolute in defence with strong tackling from all the players, in particular Jude Donelly and Neil Harding.

Leading the way, Donelly was rewarded during the dying moments of the game with a try from a lineout maul.

Burnham showed great spirit to find the bonus point in this game against a side who deserved their win.

Next week, Burnham 2nds will look to bounce back away to Somerton.