Despite injuries and holidays denying them several key players Burton played against Willenhall in a Staffordshire County Cup 1st round fixture at their Bognop Road ground and came away with a victory that moved into the next round, but also showed the need for some solid scrumaging forwards.

On a very wet and windy day the conditions did not help Burton’s cause and the strength and size of the home pack caused continual headaches for the Burton pack, who were under constant pressure at all set pieces. Burton kicked-off facing the rain, wind and slope and were soon put under threat by some strong forward runs that took the home side deep into Burton territory. But a good take by Josh Cartwright saw him driven twenty metres upfield with the help of Jon Edwards, Craig Dutton and prominent newcomers Ben Grocott and Joel Booth. This helped relive the pressure but lost possession saw Willenhall kick deep into the Burton twenty-two. Dave Archer’s safe hands gathered the ball and he raced forward to perform a scissors with Danny Smith, who set off on one of his dazzling, jinking runs to take the ball into the home twenty-two. As he was tackled he slipped the ball out to debutant Harry Titley and Ian Gilmour was on hand to round off the move by touching down in the corner. Tom Bartram’s conversion just crept over the bar to give his side a seven-point lead.

But as so usually happens when Burton score the opposition took advantage of a lack of concentration and some very poor tackling to race into the Burton twenty-two. Once there their forwards made several short powerful bursts that resulted in a penalty against Burton. The hosts opted for a scrum to use their forward power and domination and drove over for a converted try to level the scores at 7-7. Just before the break another barnstorming break by the Willenhall No 8 saw him get to twenty-two before a combined tackle of Grocott and Booth stopped him, but from the ensuing penalty Burton were lucky not to go into the break three points down but thankfully the kick missed.

From the restart Burton started with re-newed venom and Danny Smith was only just denied a try as he was bundled into touch two-metres out. Debutant Ben Marshall came on for the injured Lee English as Burton piled on the pressure and got a penalty that Bartram converted to put Burton in the lead at 10-7. Then a break from halfway saw Darryl Banton make thirty metres before passing to Archer, who although juggling with the ball, took the pass to outpace the home defence and come round to score under the pots. Bartram again got the extra points and a more confident looking Burton side led 17-7.

Charl Nethling and Damon Varney replaced Rich Wilton and Craig Dutton to put fresh energy into Burton’s pack as Burton continued to assert their superior skills. All this pressure began to tell as Willenhall started to infringe more and more resulting in a yellow card for one of their forwards. Another Bartram penalty rounded off the scoring to give Burton a soild but far from polished victory by 20-7.