Burton U14's  on 16th March 2008

On Sunday 16th March Burton under 14's played two away fixtures with the Lions at Ilkeston and the Stags away to Leicestershire county champions Hinckley.

Hinckley 30   Burton Stags 10

Burton arrived at Hinckley knowng that they were to play a quality side in Hinckley. The conditions were horrible and the pitch a bit of a mud bath following heavy overnight rain. Burton couldn't have had a worst start . A poor kick off by Burton fell to a Hinckley forward who was unchallenged . This put the pressure straight on Burton. Within five minutes Burton were ten points down. But the Burton lads showed real character as they started to play some rugby.

There were some good breaks by Edwin Runagle and Ross Burrows. From a Burton scrum Alistair Weedon picked up at 8 and fed the ball to Sam Day who made a great run. The game was much more even now with some much more committed defence. Hinckley made a break and looked to be on for a certain try , but James Gibbons made an outstanding tackle at fullback. However it was Hinckley who scored the next try.

Back came Burton again and some sustained pressure was rewarded with a try. This was scored by Stuart Carter who made a powerful run from a penalty. This completed the first half Hinckley 15 Burton 5 Hickley started the second half very well. They were starting to get their backs more into the game. Good back movement by Hinckley meant they often had players on the overlap and from this scored three tries in the second half. But still Burton played with great spirit .

The Burton backs were starting to try things themselves and were playing some good rugby. Again this resulted in a try. In a maul near the Hinckley line Josh Wilson turned and Suart Carter ripped the ball from him to go over for his second try of the day. The conversion was from near the touch line and Gibbons was really unlucky when his conversion attampt hit the crossbar.

Burton were now fired up and there were further passages of good play with Kieran HAwketts busy at every ruck and winning turnover ball , and Ross Burrows making an excellent tackle on the receiver of another Day box kick. And so Burton came away beaten by a better side on the day but with some real positives from an overall good performance.After the match Burton did score a victory when Tom Hunt won a boat race against a Hinckley player downing a pint of orangeade in the quickest time. Tom clearly has been in training for next weeks tour to Gloucestershire. (also has any player from the Stags picked up an extra Burton tie? Josh wilson is missing one. If you do find it please let me know. Thanks)

Ilkeston 45    Burton Lions 0

The game was played in very windy conditions. The Ilkeston players were much larger than Burtons and they soon showed that some of them had pace with their size. Despite the weight difference the Burton pack won their own scrums. The front row of Gevan Tompkins, Will Lord and Tom Langley did especially well and Lord even managed to take one against the head.

With the forwards going backwards the Burton backs had little opportunity to move the ball and whenever Seb Chesterman or Danny Stringer (Scrum half and fly half) got the ball they were swamped by Ilkeston players. Burton held out for a while but Ilkeston soon scored their first try.

Burton almost scored when Alex Bowen ran a penalty but brave tackling pushed him into touch at the corner flag. Callam Elliott played his fist match for Burton playing in both the front and back row. He put in some good tackles and the front row remained strong whilst he was there. Burton defended well for periods then each time it seemed that a single Ilkeston player would break through to score a try, some from almost the length of the pitch.

James Walker defended particularly well, making at least three try saving tackles. Adam Cooke made another two tackles on players who seemed certain to score, one actually over the Burton try line, somehow getting his body under the ball to prevent it being grounded. Ilkeston eventually scored eight tries without reply for a final score of 45 – 0.