Burton RFC U13's squad are outright victors after a wet morning at Sutton Coldfield RFC

On a particularly miserable February Sunday morning, all available squad players travelled to Sutton Coldfield RFC for a tough morning of U13’s rugby.
Having previously played SCRFC in the autumn we know they are no mugs and well respected in the Birmingham district. After a win last time, our hosts were going to be hungry for a better result.

After discussions with the Sutton Coaches it was decided that two games of 15 minutes each way would be the order of the day with a development game to start with.

The first game started and within minutes we could see how evenly matched the two teams were, a great effort by both sides however good work by the Crofters ensured that the ‘arm wrestle’ of a game was mainly in the Sutton half. All Burton players stepped up to the mark with excellent tackles against bigger players and despite some great attacking play the points would not come, eventually after several phases by the forwards Jeri ‘the tank’ Oldfield muscled over the try line to put us ahead. 5-0. Unfortunately we missed the conversion but it was quite a distance and very windy! (Excuse book-Chapter 3-Paragraph 7!)
The battle continued and our opposition never gave in but at the end of the second half we were the victors!
Well done to all players who stuck to their game will excellent work by Will Pickles & Toby Laughlin, enjoying a full game and contributing to our win.

Sutton Coldfield RFC 0 v Burton RFC 5
Try scorer: Jeri Oldfield

The second game was just as closer fought battle, and with Sutton by far the bigger pack the Burton boys had their work cut out.
Sutton were first to score after some good play and a strong running back. 5-0. But undeterred we dug deep and piled on the pressure, as of other games in the past few weeks, we made hard work of it and not really playing the flowing fast ball game we love.
Levi might as well have bought his Valentine cards to write for the action he saw out on the wing, and our running lines were poor and inconsistent but still we battled on and from some good forward play Brodders’ saw an open line through the Sutton defense and his pace and determination saw him over the line. 5-5. Well done Callum.

From then on both teams fought tooth & nail and both sides need to be applauded for their efforts and grit, despite most of the forwards having played two games we never gave an inch. On a different day with other replacements the result could have been different but as the final whistle blew we had to be happy with a draw.

Great work by the whole squad this morning, but we must really get more confident in using our set-piece and making decisions based on the flow of the game.
In particular thanks today should go to Zak Dyche, Tim Goring, Hugo McGhee & Jeri Oldfield who did an outstanding job in the front row for most of both games!Also Will Beardsmore who showed versatility by playing at 10, 6 & No 2!

Sutton Coldfield RFC 5 v Burton RFC 5
Try scorer: Callum Brodrick