U14's on 24th February

Burton U14's on 24th February 2008

On Sunday Burton under 14's played two fixtures again. The Stags were at home to Market Bosworth while the Lions travelled North to play Belper under14's.

Belper 0 Burton Lions 32

Belper started strongly with a bigger set of forwards but Chris Sammons (playing his first match back after an operation) almost scored following a fine kick through. He was first to the ball but kicked on further and the ball went just beyond the dead ball line. From the resulting 22 drop out Seb Chesterman gathered the ball and raced over for Burtons fist try. Sammons started a fantastic move linking with Connor Clare and Alex Cook but the move was stopped a few meters from the Belper line. Burton ended up with a penalty, the ball was passed to Jack Champney who burst through for his first try of the day. Belper were also handling well and a fine tackle by Sam Turner stopped their best chance of the half.

Burton kicked off for the second half, Champney beat everybody to the ball and ran in for his second try. A third for him followed shortly after. Chesterman made a fine break, and when stopped the Burton forwards were there in support, Champney picked up and ran in from 30 meters out. From a scrum just inside the Burton half Champney spotted the gap on the blind side, picked up and ran in for his fourth try which Sammons converted. Belper didn’t give up and burst through but Nathan Stokes tackled the player to stop a certain Belper try. Belper then had a scrum near the Burton line. Some how the ball came out to Adam Cooke who beat several players and took play back into the Belper half. Sammons sealed the win with another quick penalty, beating three players before touching down for a final score of 32 – 0. A fine win for Burton. This was an impressive team performance with all the players contributing. The handling and support play was excellent.

Burton Stags 0 Market Bosworth 26

The Stags played host to Market Bosworth under 14's , a side with the formidable record of losing just one match in their last 66 fixtures. This was to be a real test for this Stags side. In recent weeks Burton had started poorly but in this match they made an excellent start and put Market Bosworth under some real pressure. The Bosworth defence was well organised and Burton were struggling to find gaps to penetrate. Equally, despite some impressive moves by the Bosworth backs, Burton were getting their tackles in. Burton looked as though they would open the scopring when they were camped within 5 meters of the Bosworth line. Alex Crisp looked to be over but spilled the ball just short of the line. Bosworth responded with some fine running through the backs and eventually found a gap down the left wing to score a try which was well converted. Burton responded well and the Burton forwards working well in pods made ground with succesive players picking and charging forward. Again the Bosworth defence kept Burton out. At half time the score was Burton 0 Market Bosworth 7.

Burton started the second half strongly . However as Market Bosworth started to play some very impressive rugby through their backs , Burton started to miss tackles, This led to three further tries of which two were converted. Burton continued to look strong upfront and won several scrums against the head.Sam Day made a great run and looked to be through for a try but couldn't get the ball out to the supporting backs. So the final score was Burton 0 Market Bosworth 26 , but this was a much better performance from Burton stags , especially in the first half against very impressive opposition.