Burton RFC U13's 17 v Walsall RFC 7

I only ever head into Walsall when we go shopping to IKEA and the route always passes Walsall RFC. I always reflect on winning a plate final at a festival when we were U7’s…. no more!!... thanks to today’s memorable performance by the Burton U13’s!!
This was always going to be a tough game, possibly one of the toughest in our County pool, Walsall being no mugs and having gained a handful of Grammar School boys, they gave us a fair run for our money at last season’s County festival when we managed to scrape a win 5-0 and after our disjointed performance the previous Sunday we were going to have to dig deep to get ourselves back on form and produce a win.

The morning was beautiful and sunny and the attitude and atmosphere in the changing rooms was focused and quite intense. We started our warm up in good style and who could help but wonder what was in store when we saw the size of some of the opposition players, Walsall’s centre would not of been out of place on a basketball court!

A quality neutral referee was provided and he set his stall out to both teams with regards to what he wanted to see and what he wouldn’t tolerate around the tackle zone and breakdown area.

Walsall kicked off and we made good progress, working hard at the breakdown and producing good clean ball for our backs to try and penetrate the oppositions defence. Walsall kept their defences up but good consistent team work from the Crofters resulted in a fine break for Charlie Bunting (captaining the team for the second time this season) to touch down in fine style. 5-0 to us.
Burton’s confidence rose and quality rugby was becoming fashionable, great hands, strong runs, good rucking and of course no first half would be complete without Levi Davis producing another cracking try. 10-0.

All was going to plan and the scoreboard was starting to look healthy but then Walsall came back strong and hard and the centre we had been doing our best to keep under wraps made a superb break slipping out of several tackles and sprinting the length of the pitch to score under the posts!! A quick conversion made the game a lot more interesting and the score was now 10-7, with everything to play for.

Perry called the team to order at half time and everyone knew what they needed to do.

Throughout the second half there was some superb rugby played by both teams, however we did scrummage very strongly and any mistakes by Walsall were punished by the Crofters and after what seemed like an eternity of game play Hugo peeled off the back of a breakdown and touched down the try we had all been working so hard for. A quality kick from Danny Causer sealed the fate and the ref blew full time. 17-7 to us!! Howrah!

A fantastic performance from ALL Burton players with some excellent individual performances from Ben Cadman strong running into contact (what did he have for breakfast!?) James Rowland for determined, persistent running back at much larger players from his Full Back position without any fear at all time after time, Oli Mears returning to form after a long absence with his arm injury, the pack for working as a unit and producing quality clean ball for the backs who were enjoying the sunshine!.... and of course our wonderful back line for good communication, accurate passing, remembering the LUMBERJACK move (that was awesome!)and finally the excellent tackling throughout the game.

At the moment this puts us at the top of our Pool in the County Cup and hungry for our next fixture. Well done to you all and especially the parents for your continued support!!