Table toppers Burnside travelled the short distance to Tregenza Oval on Saturday to take on their local rivals Old Collegians.
The roles of the previous seasons have been reversed as the double blues went into Round 7 unbeaten and sitting on top of the table. Old Collegians on the other hand have dropped points to Onkaparinga, Brighton and of course Burnside who thrashed Old Collegians in Round 2.
Conditions were perfect on the clear, crisp winter’s day in the leafy eastern suburbs of Adelaide, as Old Collegians looked to get revenge for the 44-7 defeat they suffered in Round 2. Adam Whitehead made the step up to the Coopers Premier Grade competition and was going to be tested against the dangerous back three of Burnside.
Unfortunately for the home team the deadlock was broken within two minutes as Josh Bailey crossed for the first try with a simple inside move that left the Collegians defence flat footed.
From that point on, the men from Tregenza Oval were always on the back foot. Without the strong midfield running of the injured Gary Mann, Old Collegians struggled to launch any meaningful attack and were unable to unleash their pacey wingers. A yellow card to Lee Verrall compounded the pressure on the Old Colls defence.
Burnside were also missing their influential big-man, Callum Walton, who is recovering from an ankle injury, however the boys in blue have shown impressive squad depth in 2017, a squad bolstered by some imports from the U.K.
One of those imports was Will Shields, although he has travelled a shorter distance after moving from Geelong to study in Adelaide, who was impressive in attack and scored Burnside’s second try, again exposing the weak points of the Old Collegians defence. Nichel Lam Sam who controlled a driving maul over the line added another try for Burnside shortly afterwards.
Burnside went into halftime 27 points to the good, holding Old Collegians to zero.
The Double Blues scored again early in the second half again first up tackles causing the undoing of the Old Colls defence allowing Chris Hodgson to score. With Lam Sam repeating his driving maul exploits Burnside entered the last 20 minutes of the game 39 points in front.
Old Collegians finally started to put some phases of rugby together towards the end of the game and finally broke through the Burnside wall with Whitehead finding some space and scoring the consolation try.
With this win Burnside cement themselves on the top of the table, as a playing group they aren’t getting ahead of themselves and are aware that they need to keep playing the way they are. At the Queen’s Birthday break it would a brave soul that bet against Burnside making their way to the big show at the end of the season.
Old Collegians will remain in fourth and will probably find themselves in the finals at the end of the season, of course when you reach the finals anything can happen. Old Collegians will be keen to improve in the weeks after the break and Steve Pepper has the big task of getting Old Collegians into the top two to give them the second chance final.
Other games from the weekend saw Southern Suburbs defeated by Brighton 48-9, and Onkaparinga hosted Port Adelaide 48-12.
The results leave Burnside on top with Brighton, Onkaparinga and Old Collegians making up the top four. Southern Suburbs sit in the safe space in fifth and Port Adelaide sitting in the relegation spot.
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Rugby will return to the festival state on June 17th after the long weekend with Burnside taking on Onkaparinga at Parkinson Oval, Brighton will host Old Collegians at CME Sports Lighting Rugby Field and Port Adelaide will face Southern Suburbs at Riverside Oval in the broadcast game.
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