Captain Burfiend buoyed by Pulborough's improvements against Hove

Pulborough captain Simon Burfiend believes they will adjust well to life in London 2 South East if they continue to show their rapid improvements.
DM1610116a.jpg Rugby, Pulborough v Old Dunstonians . Photo by Derek Martin SUS-161001-003135008DM1610116a.jpg Rugby, Pulborough v Old Dunstonians . Photo by Derek Martin SUS-161001-003135008
DM1610116a.jpg Rugby, Pulborough v Old Dunstonians . Photo by Derek Martin SUS-161001-003135008

After a heavy defeat in their opening game at this level, Pulborough took plenty of positives from a 54-24 reverse to Hove at Freelands on Saturday.

Promoted Pulborough have been dealt a number of tough fixtures to start the season, but Burfiend is more than satisfied with their week-on-week improvement.

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Having trailed 14-6 at half-time, a late blitz from Hove saw them clinch a convincing scoreline.

Burfiend said: “It was a massive improvement on last week. We started much stronger with the defence looking significantly better, and it seemed as though we had the confidence to attack in the wider channels to throw the ball around more.

“Unfortunately, we are still slightly lagging behind teams in the last 15 minutes fitness wise, and the opposition are capitalising on this, much as we did last season. However, this is an easy fix with a bit more commitment to training and working on fitness.

“Overall the feeling was that of a positive one. I feel that if we had a few less injuries we could have easily come away from the match with at least a bonus point and the feeling was that we could have ran Hove much closer.

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“If we continue improving each week as we have from round one to round two I have no doubts we will be fine in this league.”

With a few faces back from injury, Borough got their first home game of the season underway playing up the hill at Freelands.

The home side looked a lot more organised in defence and made ground with crisp passing with the ball, despite failing to take points from their attacks. In comparison, Hove visited the Pulborough 22m twice and showed their clinical edge scoring both times and both converted.

‘Borough managed to get themselves on the scoreboard through the boot of Frazer Oliphant-Hope who slotted two penalties, one of which after some fine work over the ball from Matt Goring.

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Pulborough’s first try in the division came from some dominating close running by the pack and scrum half Ollie Paige spotted his moment to dive over the line.

Their second came with powerful running from deep by the back row forwards, and mesmerising stepping from Nick Haynes on the wing and Anthony Morris drove over.

At one point they managed to claw the score to within ten points, however by this point, the bench was in constant use with injuries mounting and Hove continued to score.

Pulborough’s third try came as Oliphant-Hope burst between two Hove forwards, before drawing in the full back to put in trailing support runner Haynes who crashed over for a converted score.

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But by chasing a fourth try bonus point, Hove managed to run away on the scoreboard late on.

Pulborough: Ruff, Coombe-Tennant, Baxter, Beesley, Goring, Bullock, Mcloughlin, Morris, Paige, Oliphant-Hope, Miller, Burfiend, Callaway, Haynes, Lee. Subs: Ryan, Dicks.

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