A Team lose at home to Mansfield

The A team welcomed Mansfield to Battlestead Croft for once again an important fixture in the league. With uncertainty around how many teams are relegated, The A's knew they needed to win to put pressure on rivals Southwell, who appear to have a harder run in than us.

With the pitch heavy after the recent rainfall, it was going to be hard for free flowing rugby to take place. Mansfield kicked off into the wind, a safe catch and Rhys Williams was off on a half break, this set the tone for the first few minutes, with the A's seemingly catching their opponents still half asleep. The only reward however was a penalty kick from the boot of Harry Smith to give the home side the early lead. 3-0.

Mansfield came straight back and punished some weak tackling to go over in the corner. 3-5.

The heavy Mansfield pack was starting to make yards causing disruption from very fast distributing from the 9 & 10, allowing their jinky winger to turn several A's players in knots. However with all this possession, they were unable to capitalise. It was the A's who got the next score, with the forwards picking and driving towards the line. Eventually Rhys Williams was able to shrug off a few defenders to dot down. Smith with the conversion, 10-5.

The visitors again came straight back, after a few penalties, they set up a strong driving maul, that Burton were unable to deal with. Their number 8 crashing over for them to take the lead again. 10-12.

With half time approaching and both teams starting to look tired, the home team pressed for a score, but found the visitors defence more than able to stand up to the challenge. Eventually a penalty was given and Smith duly slotted it on the half time whistle. 13-12.

Half time score;
Burton A's 13-12 Mansfield

For the first 30 minutes of the second half, the A's appeared to completely switch off and struggled to tackle when needed. This allowed Mansfield to score 3 tries and seemingly take the game away from the A's. 13-33.

All of a sudden they woke up, and with time against them, they needed to score fast, breaks from Lister & Abel started this, with Connor Bradley diving over the line, Smith converting. 20-33.

From the kick off, Lister and Jones combined to get deep into the opposition half, from there Abel used his strength and speed to power over, Smith not getting the conversion this time. 25-33. After the try was scored a Mansfield player was sin binned for dissent which caused a huge gap to appear. This was exploited by Lister, who made yards before releasing Jones again down the wing, a good cover tackle stopped him dead.

The A's pressed and pressed for a another score, but could not break the resolute defence and with a knock on and penalty going against the home team in the last seconds. The Refs whistle blew, much to the relief of Mansfield, who in the end were worthy winners.

Final Score;

Burton A's 25-33 Mansfield.

MOM: Josh Lister