The improvement shown by Burton 1st XV last week was continued, at least in the first half, to help them record their second league victory of the season after this 28-26 defeat of Bedworth at their Rectory Fields ground on Saturday. If the level of performance and determination had been maintained for the full eighty minutes then a more realistic victory with a winning margin of fifty or sixty points could well have been achieved as Burton continued their resurgence.

A late change saw Ken Archer come into the squad to fill the space left on the bench by Lawrence Betty’s withdrawal after his knee injury had failed to respond to treatment. Using the slope to their advantage Burton took control from the start and some good carries by Craig Dutton, Jon Edwards, Jamie Hamilton, Matt Tivey and Kev Birt took play well into the Bedworth half where it stayed for most of the first half as Burton dominated territory and possession. After one of these many carries Kelvin Browne broke down the blindside and with plenty of players in support he fed the ball to Danny Smith who raced in to touch down. Dave Archer stepped up to slot home the conversion and Burton led 7-0 after six minutes.

From the restart Burton tore into the opposition ranks and soon got possession to work the ball towards the home line as both scrummages and lineouts were working well for the Burton pack. A solid set scrum and yet another piece of great handling by the Burton side saw an overlap created after Darryl Banton had broken down the blindside and fed Danny Smith. The winger raced up the field and as a would be tackler neared he slipped the ball to full back Mark Ovens who was in support to race over the line and put the ball down for a try. Archer again made no mistake with the conversion as his kick bisected the uprights.

So with barely fifteen minutes played Burton led 14-0 and continued to pose a threat to the home line every time they got possession and with the Burton pack in complete control all play was in home territory as Bedworth struggled to clear their lines. All this pressure saw Bedworth being penalised for slowing the ball, not releasing and handling in rucks and from two of these penalties Archer showed that he was in good kicking form as he landed two attempts at goal to increase Burton’s lead to 20-0 in the first half hour.

A lapse in Burton’s defence saw Bedworth break through the centre, but great covering work by Dave Fitchett and Browne soon killed the danger with great tackles. For the next ten minutes Bedworth began to adopt Burton’s tactics and some good forward carries saw Burton eventually penalised for killing the ball and the home kicker Foster put his side on the board with a well struck kick.

Leading 20-3 after the break Burton possibly thought the job was done and relaxed their efforts a little and Bedworth began to take control and begin their fight back. An early penalty against Burton saw the Bedworth kicker put the ball over the bar from long range. A feat he later repeated twice more as his forwards began to dominate the Burton pack, whose efforts had diminished as the game elapsed. So with the game at 20-12 Bedworth saw they had a chance to turn what had seemed like an inevitable defeat into possible victory, but then their scrumhalf was sin-binned for abusive language to the Burton touch judge allowing Josh Cartwright and his pack to make their man advantage count with some good passages of play. But Bedworth’s defence held firm and Burton failed to capitalise on this further as attempts to run the ball out of defence faltered with poor options and handling.

When restored to fifteen men Bedworth again started to take control and a string of penalties against Burton saw Dave Fitchett yellow carded for repeat offending so reversing the man advantage. Bedworth won a scrum five metres from the Burton line and with the extra man they surged towards the Burton line. Their No 8 picked up from the base but Browne was too quick to release his bind and the referee quickly awarded a penalty try under the posts and so Bedworth got within one point of Burton at 20-19.

So with less than fifteen minutes to play and only one point difference Bedworth continued to pressurise the Burton line as they made inroads in the Burton defence. But the ever alert Dutton was quickly onto a spilled ball to snatch it up and race into opposition territory where he passed to his support and Archer eventually took the final pass to race clear of the Bedworth defence and score in the corner and take the score to 25-19.

Bedworth fought back but their kicker failed with two penalty attempts and then to pile on their agony Archer stepped up to kick another penalty goal of his own to increase Burton’s lead to nine points. But with the minutes ticking away a switch from the restart saw Bedworth catch the Burton defence off guard and a great tackle on the Burton catcher saw the ball dislodged for their centre to snap it up and feed their blindside flanker who raced in to score a try that was then converted to take the final score to 28-26 and leave Burton with a victory that they had very nearly thrown away after a lack-lustre second half display failed to live up to the promise of the first half.