RUGBY UNION: A DEPLETED Kenilworth outfit produced a committed performance against high-flying Burton but the Midlands 1 West basement boys found themselves on the wrong end of a 38-6 scoreline at a bitterly cold Glasshouse Lane.
The hosts were yet again well short of their first choice 15 as a consequence of the ongoing lack of player availability, due in part to a crippling injury list.
Burton started the game at full tilt with their big forwards backs driving constantly into the Kenilworth defence.
After only seven minutes of play and a series of drives towards the Kenilworth line, Burton crossed near the posts to record their first try of the afternoon, which was successfully converted.
Kenilworth’s response was to run the ball back at Burton at every opportunity and as a consequence Burton became untidy and regularly transgressed resulting in numerous penalties and two yellow cards.
Unfortunately Kenilworth, whilst getting close on more than one occasion, could not cross the line and eventually took the kick at goal option, two of which were successfully converted by Josh Hickman for a six point reward.
Kenilworth were dealt a blow after losing Jonny Openshaw with a shoulder injury and his replacement Nick Gerber promptly damaged his ankle to limit his mobility for the remainder of the game.
The injury woes continued with back rower Raj Bahey having to go off with a foot injury.
One of the consequences of chasing the game is the vulnerability to counter attack. This in fact happened with a move being started in the Burton half ending up over the Kenilworth try line for a second score, which was unconverted.
At half-time Kenilworth had battled hard and were very much still in the game at 6-12 down. Although a concern was that despite all their pressure and field position Kenilworth had failed to score a try.
For the first 15 minutes of the second half the game very much moved backwards and forwards with no side particularly dominant although what was becoming apparent was that to keep any sort of parity Kenilworth had to do a lot of tackling against much heavier opponents.
It was further apparent that Burton’s more direct running ,was beginning to wear Kenilworth down. As such, Burton created and took advantage of a huge gap to score their third try, unconverted, taking the score to 6-17.
By now the hosts were starting to be worn down and despite real effort to create opportunities and take the game back to Burton, spilled or lost ball was turned over and run back down the park.
As such Burton scored a further three tries, all converted, to take the final score to 6-38.
