Stoke were in fourth place in the league, having had some good wins lately, in particular over Bromsgrove and Dudley Kingswinford. They therefore expected a tough game.

A tough game was what they got and although they had plenty of the ball for much of the first half they were unable to penetrate the Stoke defence. However, they eventually got into the visitors’ 22 where they were awarded a penalty for an offence at the break down. Will Simpson slotted the ball between the posts to open the scoring.

The rest of the half was a fairly scrappy affair with both sides making mistakes and taking wrong options. Although there were some good runs by the Burton backs and forwards, either the last pass went astray or the Stoke scrambled defence kept them out. Just before half time they were awarded a five metre scrum. They drove towards the try line and number eight Kelvin Browne picked the ball up and dived over for the first try. The conversion was missed so the score at half time was 8-0.

After half time Chaz Bunting who had been playing on the wing was switched back to his customary scrumhalf position. This was presumably to take the ball forward close to the breakdown in order to counteract the Stoke defenders being offside most of the time. Burton started to exert some pressure on the visitors’ defence and a hurried clearance kick did not find touch but fell to Bunting on the half way line. In a brilliant individual effort, he charged his way to the line fending off several defenders and ran around to score under the posts. Simpson added the extra points.

The Stoke play was fairly one dimensional and in truth, although they made a lot of carries they never really looked like penetrating the Burton defence. However, they made life difficult for the Burton backs who also were unable to find a way through the defence.
Towards the end of the match the Burton set scrum got on top and they won a series of penalties and opted for scrums. It is possible that a penalty try should have been awarded but in any case from the last of these scrums Browne picked the ball up and ran in to score his second try of the afternoon. Simpson converted.

There was no further significant action so the final score was Burton 22 Stoke 0. Burton will be pleased that they kept a clean sheet, but disappointed that they failed to get a try bonus point. They remain at the top of Midlands 1 West, five points clear of Dudley Kingswinford who have played the same number of games.