Stafford 5  Burton 27 on Oct 21st 2007

After the disappointment of the England South Africa world cup Burton U17's travelled to Stafford and came away with what appears to be a comfortable win. The truth is that the Burton team did not play any where near to their potential and regularly managed to give clear chances and plenty of encouragement to Stafford!!

Body language suggested that the Burton team expected to beat Stafford, so maybe that is why they didn't appear to switch on to the task in hand for the full duration of the match? Two early tries resulted in Burton taking the foot of the pedal and letting Stafford come at them. The same happened at the start of the second half.

Too many players went forward on their own with little support or team play. Stafford were very game and repeatedly caused problems for the Burton pack and back division. Every time Stafford got a head of steam up Burton decided to up the ante and do just a bit more to sort the problem out, a successful strategy on this occasion but not a tactic to use against stiffer opposition!!

It is a good sign if Burton U17's are winning and not altogether happy with the performance. Everyone needs to show commitment to improve their game and deliver good rugby on a regular basis.

Training this Thursday and Sunday should help the team continue in their quest to improve and as a hard November fixture list looms closer everyone will need to up their focus a good few percent.

Good to see Jan Cleary making his debut for over a season - keep it up Jan and keep up the good work  Burton U17 Rugby team.

Also thanks to Angelo Nel our own U17 coach who stepped in as referee.