Burton 'A' 50 Walsall 2nds 0 on 20th October 2007

Following late cry-offs a much changed Burton side from the one selected took to the field against Walsall with two new signings for the club amongst their ranks namely Chris Murcott from Stafford and Paul Sanders from Newbury.

From the start Walsall appeared to be a well-organised side but two early scrums and a lineout made it obvious that Burton were by far the better side. After just 15 minutes Burton set up a good ruck ball and scrumhalf Ian Jones wasted no time in dummying his way over for a score. Jon Hamilton, showing his ability to break tackles, was next to add points as he drove over from a very similar position. But despite all the pressure from Burton it was only these two scores that separated the sides at the break as Walsall managed to frustrate Burton’s efforts.

With Burton needing to turn pressure into points it wasn’t until the fiftieth minute that saw Russ Banton scamper over for a try and put Burton in to any sort of comfort zone. Sean Green and Brendan Fall started to clean out all of the lineouts. The two debutantes Murcott and Sanders in the backrow were a constant thorn in Walsall’s side as they continually popped up in the right place at the right time. Twice in the space of 5 minutes Sanders was on hand to score twice, once from starting a move in his own 22 to ending it as he took the final pass to touch down. Tom Gregory, Jamie Parker and Darryl Banton all went over for further tries as the visitors began to wilt, and with Banton adding five conversions out of Burton’s eight tries this gave the home side another well earned victory.