Burton U14's  on 9th March 2008

Despite a number of players being unavailable or injured Burton under 14's still fielded two sides . The Stags made the short journey to Old Salteans and the Lions hosted Burntwood

Burton Stags 65 v Old Saltleians 5

Burton started the match well and put Old Salteans under alot of pressure. Poor decision making by Burton delayed the first score , but eventually good interpassing from the forwards set Alex Bowen up to score a try, well converted by Ashley Allum. From the kick off  Marcus Armitage made a good break . With several players outside he had options but instead powered through to score a try. Again Allum made no mistake with the conversion. Burton's third try came when an Old Salts player kicked the ball into the Burton forwards. Alistair Weedon broke away withe ball and passed inside to Armitage to score his second try. Old Salts continued to battle well. One particular brake was halted by an excellent tackle from Callam Sandeman who had a great game playing at flyhalf. Sandeman was involved in the next try. Burton won a lineout and Sandeman made a great run and linked up with Kieran Hawketts. Hawketts set the ball up well for Weedon to pick up and score . This was brilliantly converted by Allum.

At half time then the score was Burton 26 Old Salts 0

In the second half , Burton were challenged to play a more expansive game . They responded by playing some excellent rugby. Michael Cook made a great break and kept on his feet brilliantly under presuure . From a resulting scrum the ball found WillTurner who crashed through to score. The ball was now moving well and from a ball played down the line Arnitage was on hand to complete a hattrick of tries.Stuart Carter came on and made an immediate impact and looked unstoppable as his powered through from a penalty . Again Allum converted. Old Salts never dropped their heads and scored a consolation try from the kick off when an attempted clearance kick off was chrged down. Immediately though, Burton responded through Tom Hunt collecting Burtons kick off to score a try . Yet again Allum converted . This conversion into a gale. In total Allum made 5 conversions , none of them easy. The next try was the best of the bunch. Ross Burrows made a powerful run and off loaded superbly to Will Turner. Turner passed outside to Michael Cook who drew a defender before passing inisde again to Turner who ran through to score. There were two further tries to Burton. Alex Crisp made a great run and unselficiously made a fine one handed offload to Michael Cook who capped an excellent performance with a try which was particularly celebrated by all the Burton lads . The game was rounded off by Burtons other winger, Tom Hunt, who chased a long kick down and having pressurised the defender collected the ball to score. Burton played some entertaining rugby and ran out winners Burton 65 Old Salts 5

Burton U14 Lions 7 v  Burntwood 22

Burton Lions hoped to stretch their recent unbeaten run. Burntwood were soon to show they had the stronger pack and made it very difficult for Burton. Seb Chesterman started well at the back of the scrum and put in some good early tackles. An Owen Farrington tackle also stopped an early Burntwood run. Burton were soon to suffer a big blow when a scrum collapsed and Sam Wardega, a top player for Burton, suffered a fracture to his upper arm. Robert Ramsell then filled in well at second row and had a fine game. Shortly after the game resumed Burntwood broke free and scored a fine try in the left corner. Burntwood kept up the pressure but some strong Burton tackling kept them out, particularly by Matt Prince, Nathan Brookes, Farrington and James Walker. Burntwood looked to have scored again from a penalty but the ball was dropped over the line. Prince did a fine counter attack, and then Walker burst free and had a great 60 metres run up the left wing before being tackled.

At half time it was 5 – 0 to Burntwood. but in the second half Burntwood kept up the pressure and wore Burton down. Burton seemed to forget how to tackle for a while and Burntwood scored two more fine tries one was a run from the halfway line which was converted. Whilst defending again Brookes picked up a loose ball just inside his own 22, he accelerated away going around the first Burntwood players and then changed his angle to beat others and touch down for a try under the posts which was converted by Chesterman.Burntwoods forward dominance allowed them to score a final try and the end result was a win to Burntwood, 22 – 7.