Avon Burned on Coast

With captain and vice captain Kai Harwood and Scott Book both watching from the sidelines, it looked likely at one stage that the makeshift side might pull off a victory against the odds before it all unraveled.

Burnham started the game at a high tempo,using the width of their pitch to try to stretch the Avon defence and were rewarded after 10 minutes when they squeezed over in the corner for a converted try.

Avon tightened up their defence and with their rearranged line out functioning well enough, they took control of the game. Fly half Rob Fitch kept the score board ticking over with 3 well struck penalties including a monster effort from 52 metres.

Avon gave a league debut to young scrum half Alex Gapper and the 18 year old looked impressive throughout, setting up their first try when he took a quick tap penalty and put Fitch over wide out.

With the conversion drifting wide, Avon were still good value for their 10-14 half time lead and, with their scrum increasingly dominant, felt confident after the interval. Burnham however regained the lead when their fullback put a clever kick in behind the defence to allow their winger to score a try.

Avon continued to take the game to Burnham with acting skipper Chaz Meddick and man of the match Jake Dixon both making large inroads into the home defence. Then after 63 minutes, it all started to go horribly wrong for Avon as they spilled a ball in attack and Burnham ran it back unopposed for a breakaway try. Two minutes later, Burnham intercepted a flat Avon pass inside their own 22 before running in another long distance try.

Avon were now left chasing the game and Jake Dixon pulled a try back before Burnham had the last word with a score at the final whistle.

Avon have a free Saturday this week and are hoping at least 4 of the missing squad should be back for the next fixture at home to Old Bristolians on 24th October.