Today is

Burton 38 South Leicester 34 on Dec 9th 2006

After last week’s abundance of players this week late cry off’s saw Burton scrambling for players in order to complete their squad and with the opposition already having beaten them earlier in the year (23-10) things looked ominous for the home side. Indeed as the teams took the field it looked more like a rematch of David and Goliath with Leicester having at least two stone and six inches a man advantage in the pack. The visitors started the game intent on utilising their size advantage and as the game wore on it was even more evident as they relied on their powerful pack for all their tries. But in this twelve-try spectacular it was Burton who scored first with Richard Paupe crashing over from short range. This was quickly followed by Tristan Gill racing half the length of the pitch to score under the posts and Gavin Cole converted. The opposition hit back with three tries of their own all secured by the power of the forwards. But Burton’s pack refused to buckle and very soon a break by Ben Peach allowed Ben Waldron to flop over the line for a try after the whole Burton pack had driven him forward. As the whistle went for half time the match was finally balanced with Burton leading narrowly by 17-15.

The second half saw the same see-saw action as the first with play moving from end to end but although the visitors added a further three tries it was Burton’s fitness that eventually won the day with them increasingly controlling the game. Gavin Cole and Ben Peach, although young in years, demonstrated their experience by dictating the play throughout the second half. Although heavily outweighed the Burton pack still managed to produce enough possession for this pair to use to put in sneaky little kicks and darting runs that set up plenty of opportunities for the Burton threequarters. These moves resulted in tries for Lee English and Adie Varney. But the try of the game was started by non other than that old war horse captain Ian Baker who again showed a fine turn of pace to run thirty metres before feeding debutant Gary Potts, who scored in the corner for Burton’s sixth and final try. With Cole converting three of the tries Burton left the field worthy winner and erased the memories of the earlier defeat at Leicester.