Newcastle 25 Burton Rhinos 12 on Oct 21st 2007

Burton Rhinos under 15’s travelled to Newcastle with yet another depleted squad but with a promising and positive frame of mind which ensured that they played the full game to their best ability.

Jack McKendrick once again provided the opening points of the game with a powerful run from a classic rolling maul, but the points were soon matched by Newcastle who picked up on Burton's mistake and ran in a try. That tactic was to punish Burton for the remainder of the game, as Newcastle were quick  to pick up on dropped balls, slack tackling and careless lapses of concentration to gain their points.

Burton can only look back at the remainder of the game which showed them in control of the ball for long periods of time but without being able to release their usual fast back line. Back row Tom Turner opened up his stride in the second half with a punishing run from the half way line followed by Newcastle's chasing backs and kindly placed the ball under the posts for Luke Upton to convert to draw equal. However Burtons luck then ran out, Alex Fox was required to fill in at front row for the brave battered body of Ben White, which resulted in upsetting the confident display in the centres which had held tight throughout the first half.

Scrum half James Deaville tried desperately to keep his forwards in possession of the ball and his kicking out of hand was a joy to watch and provided Burton with much needed respite. Newcastle though were now beginning to find the Rhinos weakness and punished them with two late tries which sealed the game albeit unfair score line of  25-12.