Burton RFC U13's 22 v Sutton Coldfield RFC 12

As we had know planned match this weekend we took a late pool fixture at Sutton Coldfield RFC, and with an unbeaten record this season and us taking a relatively full squad, it was going to take some metal to show the full depth of the Burton U13’s ability.
Prior to the fixture we had organized with the opposition a squad match of 3 ‘halves’ of 20 minutes with (on the Burton side) all players getting a good amount of game. We agreed to start with a stronger team and play through to a development fixture in the last half with all new and inexperienced players getting their hands dirty.
To make things even more interesting we had mixed up our team with players playing out of their normal positions to give them more experience and broaden their rugby outlook.

The first half (of 3) kicked off and Burton U13’s immediately taking the upper hand with good work from both the pack & backs, the hard graft at Thursday training had polished our rucking and again despite being up against a bigger set of forwards we dominated the breakdown providing Charlie Bunting with clean ball to serve the backs so they could stretch their legs and swing their handbags!

Joking apart, we had some lovely running play and this resulted with a break, a very unselfish scrum half offloaded in contact to guarantee Oli Mears a try in the corner, thank you very much!
After the restart we battled on, these guys were no mugs and worked a good break where their centre ran a great line, slipped out of some Crofter tackles and set his sights on our goal posts, his pace was impressive but not as good as that of our full back Ben ‘The Scythe’ Mason, who cut down 10 yards short of our touchline with the tackle of the game!
The game continued and after much domination, swift hands served Levi Davis on the right wing and again (third match on the trot) his strong handoff and gazelle like running secured the Crofters another try!

Again the restart and the home team played some impressive and powerful rugby which resulted in a good try and a neatly kicked conversion. Scores on the doors 10-7.

The second half (of three) saw a lot of changes of players but everyone continued in the same vein, with Jeri Oldfield powering over the line for his first try of his Burton career. Danny ‘the boot’ Causer neatly converted to make it 17- 7 to the Men in Black (diagonals).

The next few passages of play were quality and the young Crofters soon turned over a Sutton ball and fast hands and hard running helped Joe Cuthbertson prove his Derbyshire worth as he slipped a tackle and sprinted 70 yards to score a fantastic try.

The third half started, and what was meant to be a development 20 minutes saw Sutton bring many of their big guns back on to try and change the score, powerful work at the breakdown won them a ball that was romped through several Burton tackles and touched down over the line. Moments later the final whistle blew.

This was a really good morning’s work from all the squad with some fantastic rugby played at a very competitive level by all players. Well done to Chris Moxon for doing an excellent job in his first time paying club rugby and also to James Rowland and Joe Gorman for giving it a go at No. 10.
This has set the standard for next week’s Cup fixture against Tamworth RFC.

Sutton Coldfield RFC U13’s 12 v Burton RFC 22

Burton Try scorers:- Oli Mears, Levi Davis, Jeri Oldfield, Joe Cuthbertson.
Conversions:- Danny Causer 1.