Beverley return to action after the festive break with an away trip to Burnage RUFC who are four places above Beverley, who still remain anchored at the foot of National North Three table.
Burnage’s last outing in late December was against Billingham which they convincingly lost 30 points to 8. Beverley’s last outing was a close loss to Lymm losing in the last few minutes to a penalty kick 17 points to 20.
Beverley’s last win was against Burnage at Beaver Park, which seems a long time ago, in fact, 20th September. Since that day, Beverley have shown glimpses. They have been close but not quite close enough. Director of Rugby at Beverley, Junior Tupai commented:
“It’s been a tough first half of the season and our last game against Lymm just proved it. With 5 minutes remaining, we give a away a needless penalty, and they kick the goal from 40m out to win the game.”
“We’re naive and far from street smart as it was a winnable game, but I could’ve said that to a few of our performances this year, which shows how inconsistent we are.”
“Burnage is a big team from forwards to backs but seem to also struggle with inconsistencies so hopefully we can catch them on an off day.”
Burnage have taken some big scalps this season, which include Sheffield Tigers and Huddersfield YMCA. Both teams which have beaten the men from East Yorkshire convincingly this season so far.
Tupai continued:
“Burnage play on a 3G pitch so regardless of the weather, the game will be on. The pitch is small but fast and as a club, we have had some success over them at their place.”
“The hospitality is always good there, and hopefully we can start the year off on a positive note. Ideally, we’d like to remain in this league but the reality is we need to start winning games sooner rather than later, but I have targeted a few games to bring in some young promising Colts a chance in preparation for next season.”
Beverley could possible give debuts in the next month or so to up-and-coming Colts players Alfie Hart- Fisher, Luke Hazell and Jay Marrin, who all have huge potential to play 1st team rugby.
A decision will be made after training on these players.
Beverley will select from the following: A Ogilvie, K Renwick, M Shaw, A McPeake, M Hatfield, C Hancock, A Hart- Fisher, L Starbuck, J Bunn, D Hodgson, I Archibald, P Duboulay, S Atiola, I Morrison, J Gill, P Wood, A Smith, L Hazell, J Marrin