Winning Run Continues

Despite the clocks going forward, Burton turned up at Leek bright and breezy and ready to continue their excellent recent run of form. Playing down hill in the first half, a dropped ball by Burton from the kick off did allow Leek to put some early pressure onto the Burton defence. Up against a much larger pack, Burton quickly realised that the best way forward was through their backs. A Burton try quickly followed as Eddy Runagle powered down the wing to score. Burton grew and grew in confidence and were to put on a sublime display of running rugby. Leek were soon afterwards rewarded a penalty in front of the posts which they duly converted. But Burton came back swiftly with a try from Will Turner converted well by Sam Jordan Turner. Burton’s third try followed another excellent period of play. Ross Burrows made a good run and set up Henry Andrew to make a break down the wing. Some excellent inter play resulted in a free kick against Burton ,but the kick only found the powerful Runagle and a great run set up Seb Chesterman to break several tackles to score. Again Jordan Turner was accurate with the conversion. Soon after the restart Tom Bunting dug the ball from a ruck and found Sam Jordan Turner who put in an excellent pass wide to Adam Cooke. Despite several attempts by Leek to stop him, Cooke went over for his first try of the game. His second was to follow almost straight away. From the kick off, Burton set up a ruck and this time Bunting found Andrew who again set off on a great run. There was a great passage of play with excellent inter-passing which eventually found Adam Cooke again to score his second try. Eddy Runagle and Chris Brown swapped positions with Brown now out on the wing. The excellent play continued. Runagle made another powerful run. Nick Cuffley collected the ball from a ruck and made some great yardage. Cuffley found Will Lord in support and the ball moved through several Burton hands before finding Brown on the wing. Brown, showing he has all of his fathers speed ran in from the half way line to score. The half time whistle came too quickly for the Burton supporters who were really enjoying an excellent display by the visitors.

In the second half Leek changed their game plan and played the ball tight within their forwards. This did stifle much of Burton’s creative play and indeed Leek scored a forwards try following some sustained forward pressure. However, whenever Burton did get the ball out wide they scored. The first coming from Will Turner , now playing in the center. An excellent run from within his own half saw him score under the posts and this was converted by Sam Jordan Turner. Burton were starting dominate at the scrum in the second half, with Owen Farrington looking very comfortable with this his first game as prop. A well won scrum enabled the ball again to go wide. Another fine run by Turner found Bird who came inside to score. Much of the second half was taken up with some untidy play and restarted scums, but the match was completed with an excellent run by Alex Cook down the right wing who set up Nick Cuffley, there in support to score a very well deserved try . This completed the scoring with the final result Leek 8 Burton 51