Solid Start Fell Short Of Deserved Results

Burton under 17’s v Lichfield 16th January 2010
Burton 14 : Lichfield 38

Burton under 17’s played Lichfield at John Taylor High School, Barton under Needwod in this friendly, ahead of next weeks competition games.

Burton kicked off and an immediate knock-on produced an early Burton scrum. The ball passed through the half-backs to Charles Potts at inside centre who punched a hole in the Lichfield defence, offloading to Louis Dewsbury to score under the posts. The conversion left Burton 7:0 ahead after only a minutes play.

Five minutes later, good rucking deep in their own half turned over a Lichfield attack. The ball reached Tom Hunt at full back, launching a jinking run to make good ground on the left-hand side. He offloaded to Marcus Armitage in the tackle who quickly passed to left-wing AJ who was able to go over for a well worked try near the corner. Charles Potts struck the ball perfectly and it carried to increase the score to 14:0.

Lichfield stepped up their game and strong forward pressure produced a try in return, taking the score to 14:5 after 15 minutes play. The remainder of the half saw no further score as Burton successfully absorbed Lichfield pressure, in no small part due to disruptive tackling from Charles Potts and Louis Dewsbury in the centre, and good linking defence between fullback and wingers.

As half time came Lichfield found themselves a man down following a yellow card and Burton were camped in their opponents 22. They were looking good for their lead, giving every appearance that this would be extended in the second period. Appearances can be deceptive.

On there-start, Lichfield signalled their intent by putting the home side under pressure and scoring in the first minute after a brief Burton defence, their conversion closing the gap to 14:12. They continued to pressure, although a superb counter-attack gained good ground as Eddie Runagle collected a Lichfield penalty which missed touch. Passing inside to flanker Armitage, he collected the return and offloaded to Jack Champney who pushed forward and earned a scrum. Good forward work was done by Will Turner and Burton were again looking the more dominant team.

Unfortunately a pass along the back line was intercepted and a Lichfield player raced away. Despite valiant chasing back and a successful tackle on the line by Alistair Weedon, the player offloaded and Lichfield took the lead with a converted try. The game slid away from Burton as the Lichfield forward unit shifted up a gear. Further misfortune saw a kick out of defence charged down and another converted try. Burton lost a player after a yellow card. A fifth try followed a break and sprint to the line, as Lichfield exploited every opening which came their way. The coup de grace was a well worked try as the ball was spun along the Lichfield line following forward pressure in the opposite corner.

The match finished with the well drilled Lichfield team the worthy winners, albeit with rather flattering score. Burton can reflect on some good periods of play, but a need to dig deep if they are to prevail when fortune goes against them.

Burton U17’s V’s Belper 16/1/11

With the under 17’s playing both Lichfield and Belper at the same time the team against Belper had a very weakened pack. Uncontested scrums were played with non forwards in the Burton front row and two out of three in the back row. Burton soon went two tries behind bur their spirit was superb. Sam JT and centres Harry Parker and Chris Brown had to live of scraps but linked well and played some fine rugby. Alex Cook scored burtons first points. He scored a fine try as he was tackled on the line. He’d collected the ball well and sprinted over from 20 meters out.
Good work in the forwards then saw the ball released to Parker, who had a fine game, he powered over, beating the tackle for Burtons second try, making it 10 -14 to Belper at half time.

Belper started the second half strongly but against the run of play Tom Bunting was next on the score sheet. From a ruck in the centre of the field he was able to steal the ball and a gap just opened up for him. He raced over from 30 meters out to put Burton in the lead. His try was converted by Sam JT. Belper continued to put Burton under pressure and strong runs from their back row and fly half saw them score two more tries. Burton still played some fine rugby and captain Will Lord did some super inter passing with Henry Andrews down the left flank. Burtons forwards continued to struggle and had to fight for everything, Ian Evans and debutant Dan Shenton played particularly well. Ross Burrows was also getting stuck in and had a fine game.

Tom Hunt and Louis Dewsbury came on as replacements with Hunt putting in some of his trademark tackles. Dewsbury put in some strong runs and from one run on the left flank he put in a superb kick to centre field near the Belper posts but unfortunately the Belper defence got to it first. Near the end of the game Parker went on another surging run but was well tackled about 22 meters from Belpers line. Parker did a superb offload to Joe Bird who was up in support. He took the ball at pace and went over for a fine try, well converted by Dewsbury.

With a makeshift set of forwards Burtons spirit was commendable and in the end only lost 24 – 31, not bad for a team living off scraps.