In their penultimate NW2 league game the Vale travelled to Burnage and with both clubs occupying respectable mid table positions there was nothing but pride to play for especially for the home side having suffered a 27-8 defeat at the Vale in late January.

In the opening stages the Vale strengthened by the return of several senior players drove play deep into the Burnage half. A long clearance kick saw the home side relieve the situation and showed the vagaries to be encountered from a bouncing ball on a 4G pitch. Although comfortable in the line outs the Vale pack was under severe pressure in the set scrums and from one such set piece the ball was swiftly transferred to the left hand corner for a converted try shortly followed by a penalty goal.

Scrum half Jack Batty was under pressure to feed his backline while his opposite number former Vale player James Hodder was able at will to release the home sides strong running well drilled backs resulting in 2 further converted tries. For the Vale enterprising play by Richard Chadwick and Chris Ramwell plus thrusts from Sam Wallbank came to nought due to the Burnage robust defence bringing up a half time score of 24-0.

The second half saw Burnage score an early bonus point try from a driving line out maul with Andy Powers scoring shortly afterwards for Vale from a similar situation with Chris Ramwell adding the extras. Unfortunately just as the Vale seemed to be gathering some momentum a facial injury to Jack Ayrton and an arm injury to Richard Chadwick forced their permanent replacement. An injured Andy Powers soon followed them and with the aggressive running style of their backs the home side ran in a fifth converted try for a final score line of 38-7.

Team: Stevens,Powers,Oyston,Mount,Fellows,Hall,Wallbank,Ayrton,Batty,Chadwick.Ramwell,Bolton,Dodge,Fern,Leighton.

Reps:Abdelghafar,Sutcliffe,Fowler.

Scores: Powers-try,Ramwell-conversion.