A team win on the road

The A team were on the road to Leicestershire to face bottom of the table Birstall. After the last outing against Boston, they A's were looking to build from that and another win would take them further from the drop zone.

The recent rain fall had made the pitch heavy, so a forward dominated game was to be expected. From the kick off Burton started strong and attacked the flanks looking for weaknesses. They received a penalty and chose to go for the corner. Captain Cassidy hit the jumper and they drove to the line with Cassidy breaking off and dotting down. 0-5.

For the rest of the half Birstall were pretty much in control, using the wind to keep Burton pinned in their own half. This coupled with some interesting calls from the man in the middle, meant the A's struggled to do anything meaningful with the ball.

The defence however was fantastic with Birstall only managing two penalty kicks as reward for their field position. 6-5.

Other than Ben Chant getting sin binned nothing of note happened in the first half. Archie Mitchell and Josh Lister came on earlier than planned with Joe Shacklock and Charlie Wright having to come off prematurely.

Half time;
Birstall 6-5 Burton A's

The second half kicked off in similar fashion to the end of the first. With Birstall dominating position and limiting Burton time on the ball, simple handling errors and decision making proven costly.

After 10 minutes and several dubious penalties against the away side, Birstall found some luck outside with their captain powering through some flailing arms to dot down. 11-5.

From this point, Burton seemingly kicked up a few gears and started winning the refs whistle more. After 15 minutes of been camped in the opposition half, they found luck once again with the driving maul, with Archie Mitchell this time getting the five points. Ballance slotting the conversation, 11-12.

For the next 10 minutes it was one way traffic with Burton keeping the Birstall fullback busy with deep kicks. Eventually one of these kicks were fumbled giving the A's great field position.

Scrum penalties and stolen lineouts were the choice of play for a while. Until finally one of these stolen lineouts finally came good. With Rhys Williams powering over the line with three minutes to go. Ballance again converting, putting the A's eight points ahead. 11-19.

Whilst Burton managed to retain the kick off, the clearance kick was charged down, causing a moment of panic as both teams tried to scramble on the loose ball. Somehow is the scramble the ref saw a Birstall infringement and the ball was thankfully kicked out to end the game.

Full time;
Birstall 11-19 Burton A's

Banana skin just about avoided, much sterner test in two weeks against a very physical Mansfield team.