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Burton 24 Stoke 13 on Jan 27th 2007

Burton ‘A’ XV played hosts to local county rivals Stoke on a bitterly cold Peel Croft and in a good close match emerged worthy victors. After having three hookers on duty last week Chris Cooke had to be drafted in from the ‘B’ team this weak in a reshuffled front row that created havoc for the opposition at every scrum. Burton started really strongly with the pack driving the visitors off their own ball almost at will and from one such scrum flanker Sean Green fly-hacked on the loose ball for Tristan Gill to score the first of his three tries. John Leason, playing his first game for nine weeks, demonstrated his return to form with a superb conversion to give Burton a 7-0 lead. Playing with the wind Burton were well on top territorially and a five-yard scrum saw Dave Viles drop over the line from a metre out to increase the lead to 12-0. But just before the break Stoke struck back with their own version of a rolling maul and their openside flanker broke away to score an unconverted try.

The second half saw Burton loose their concentration as Stoke grabbed a second try to narrow the gap between the two sides. But with only a two point lead Burton upped their work-rate and tempo with forwards Ian Baker, John Drage and Tom Gregory all making good ground. Gavin Cole was organising his backs with the authority of a field marshall and a move that involve several pairs of hands resulted in Gill touching down for his second try, which Leason again converted. Burton continued to drive forward and a good chase by Steve Cramp saw the full back turn the ball over for Jamie Parker and Rich Paupe to make ground before Cole sent a huge cross kick over to Gill who pounced on the ball to complete his hat trick. In the dying minutes Stoke struck back with a penalty but Burton left the field with a wee-earned 24-13 victory.