Today is

Burton 8 Leicester Lions 41 on Sep 30th 2006

Last season this fixture resulted in a sixty-point defeat for Burton so despite numerous changes from last week’s successful side the home side were intent on not receiving the same type of result. Up until half-time it appeared that Burton had dealt with the point scoring machine from Leicester after holding the visitors to a 8-10 score-line but unfortunately the second half saw the flood gates open and Leicester ran in thirty more points to secure a sizeable victory.

Burton started well with the forwards applying a fair amount of pressure to the visiting defence. In fact Burton’s scrum and line-out provided ample ball to set up several scoring opportunities. But with several players playing out of position, namely Ben Simpson at scrum-half and Ben Ashfield at centre, Burton were always going to have to rely on opposition mistakes to make much headway. A great line-out steal by Stu Saunders on the Burton 22 saw the start of a superb piece of forward play that saw the pack diving forward to the opposition 10 metre line. From here Saunders peeled off the maul to race through the opposition defence like a raging bull as he cast several defenders aside to score in the corner. Then Liam Rollason converted a penalty for Burton to put them in the lead at 8-0. Perhaps these scores were a mistake as it awoke the Leicester side who hit back just before the break with two unconverted tries to take an 8-10 lead at the break.

Like the first, the second half started with Burton piling on all the pressure, but superb tackling kept them at bay and Leicester eventually cleared the ball to halfway. After the first ten minutes the Lions began to gain control and started to turn the screw as they drove Burton backwards time and again. This domination eventually told and Leicester added six tries and a penalty to go home victors by a convincing 8-43 score.