On Sunday Burton under 14's again played in two fixtures and involved 38 players .

Spartans 0  Burton Stags 46

Following last week's empahatic victory over Tamworth, parents and coaches wondered if the side could repeat that performance. Well they put in an even better display.

Playing into a gale and against a massive pack , Burton started well. Their first two tries were an absolute pleasure to watch and seemed to involve every player in the side. The first came from great continuity and interpassing . The ball was passed down the backs. Alex Crisp took the ball on and passed out to Tom Hunt. Hunt passed inside to Will Turner who in turn popped the the ball To Edwin Runagale to score . A fantastic try .

The second try was equally good . The play started with Stuart Carter , he passed inside to Sam Halton who took the ball on well. The ball was moved through the backs and Will Turner was there to power over .The Burton pack worked really hard at every breakdown and stopped Spartans getting any quality ball.

The pressure told with more points. Crisp made a break and laid a superbly weighted pass into Runagle who powered over for a try between the posts. James Gibbons made no mistake with the conversion. The final try of the half started with some great handling by Ross Burrows . He moved the ball to Callam Sanderman who moved the ball to Weedon . Weedon passed to Carter who showed he had pace as as well as power as he beat a number of defenders to score a well deserved try. The half time score then was Burton 22 Spartans 0

Spartans came out in the second half fired up and Burton had to contain some real pressure. But Burton's defense was rock solid. Eventually the ball got out to Hunt on the wing who ran half the length of the pitch to score . Burton were now firing on all cylinders. However Spartans did make a break but were stopped in their tracks by an excellent tackle from Sanderman and then Burrows. Crisp collected the ball and passed out to Carter who scored his second try of the day , this was converted by Gibbons.

As a result of an injury Will Turner found himself playing at Flyhalf and from a Burton scrum Sam Day found him with a great pass and he powered over for his second try which was well converted by Crisp. It was another great scrummage which sealed the Burton victory. 5 meters out the Burton pack put in an excellent drive to enable Weedon to collect the ball at the back of the scrum to drive over for a try.

Whilst a final score of Burton 46 Spartans 0 is satisfying , it was the nature of the team work and support play which was the most pleasing part of the display.

Burntwood 36  Burton Lions 10

Burton took a large squad of 21 players consisting of some new players and some more experienced players returning from injury.The larger squad meant that Burton's coaches, who had struggled in previous weeks for numbers and physical size now had options to  watch players and experiment.In the first half Burton played against a strong wind and by half time were down 17-0. However there were some pleasing parts of their game, including good line outs and the way the ball was moved well through the hands of the backs.

After the break Burton played better but Burntwood managed to break through the Burton defence and were leading 36-0.

However in last quarter the fantastic attitude of this squad of players started to show.  Burton did not give in and good team play was rewarded when  Marcus Armitage went over to score. Throughout the game players were replaced and swapped around but now they had started to link well and naturally fill the correct gaps. Still under pressure , Burton defended well and James Walker stole the ball and ran most of the length of the  pitch only to be stopped just before the try line.The Burton team now started to play with confidence and  the travelling supporters enjoyed getting behind the team and again Burton went over in the corner to score through Alex Bowen.

Overall Burton's coaches were content with the with the  performance and the fact that Burton came back to put points on the score board. All the PLAYERS must be given credit for their attitude and  how they played Rugby in the true Spirit!