Tamworth away

So the first game of the U13s season finally arrived today, greeted by wall to wall sunshine and a great setting down at Tamworth Rugby club. After a short warm up and some well executed practice scrummages with the opposition, we were underway. With just 3 subs, we were well outnumbered by the opposition, but that meant plenty of game time for everyone. Tamworth showed they had also put in a good shift in pre-season, demonstrating some good handling and strong work at the breakdown. Burton worked hard in defence to turn the ball over and create opportunities to attack, with some great tackling from Dylan, Alex M and an absolute belter from Tommy.

When we did get possession Joe F did a great job of organising the line and Joe C led the way with several powerful forays. Alfie W was always in support and indeed it was good work from Alfie that led to Burton's first try, as he took 5 Tamworth players with him before offloading to Joe C to score. While Tamworth were able to run in a number of tries, our back line still came up with a couple of great try saving tackles, with George B and Tommy combining on at least 2 occasions with last gasp efforts. A couple of our lads suffered with "new boot syndrome" (aka blisters) but a quick run to the handily placed second hand boots stall in the clubhouse sorted that out.

The improvement we had seen throughout the first half continued in the second half, which was much more competitive. The whole team stepped it up, working together and supporting each other a lot more. Burton scored 2 more tries, Joe C got his second of the match and Tommy finished off a flowing team move to touch down in the corner. All the forwards did fantastically well, holding their own against a large and powerful Tamworth pack, so a big thank you to the Burton 1st XV players for the superb coaching last weekend.

Despite losing the game today, it was a great learning experience with lots of positives for us to take away. The team kept their heads up throughout the game and enjoyed the challenge. The players all agreed we should work on our rucking and how to add pace to the attacking line during training on Wednesday. We'll also work on drop kicks! An encouraging start and a game played in the right spirit - well done to all the players today and thank you to our fantastic travelling support.