A very windy Saturday afternoon on a pitch in the middle of Birmingham University saw Burton slump to their heaviest defeat of the season against Bournville. A wonderful first half performance by the Burton side had seen them defy their hosts and the elements, but a well below par second half display, despite now playing with the strong wind, saw Burton struggle to contain their hosts who went on to score six tries to Burton’s one as they exposed Burton’s shortcomings. Facing the gale force wind Burton played some superb rugby restricting their hosts to a 7-6 lead, thanks to a great team effort in both attack and defence, but with just three minutes remaining of the half two costly errors saw Bournville run in two quick-fire scores to give them an undeserved 19-6 lead at the break.

The first half started with Josh Cartwright collecting the kick-off and setting up a solid maul that saw Craig Dutton race clear from only to be hauled down after making a thirty metre barnstorming burst. Unfortunately the hosts turned over the ball and got back up field to get inside Burton’s twenty-two thanks using the wind with a huge clearance kick. Burton won the lineout thanks to Cartwright’s leap and a rolling maul took play back to halfway, but the opposition again stole the ball and it took all of Burton’s defensive know-how to stop a surging move by the home backs. The Burton squad kept their line intact for twenty minutes but despite the efforts of Dave Archer, Danny Smith, Luke Peach and the Burton backrow of Dave Fitchett, ‘Spud’ Taylor and Dutton all putting in fierce tackles eventually Bournville worked the ball out wide and their winger raced in for a converted try to put them in the lead at 7-0.

Burton chased after the restart and Kev Birt, Nathan Taylor and ‘Spud’ Taylor all surrounded the catcher and with the opposition desperate to keep possession they were penalised for holding-on and Dave Archer stepped up to convert the penalty goal and put Burton on the board. Burton kept up the pressure on the home line with a series of flowing back moves and forward bursts and after another six minutes another penalty offence saw Archer reduce the deficit to just one point at 7-6.

Burton were more than matching their opponents both in set pieces and around the park, but the strong wind saw Bournville continually using it to their advantage to take play into Burton territory for Burton to have to battle their way back up field. With just three minutes of the half remaining a long clearance by Bournville saw them win a lineout and spin the ball out wide for the pace of their winger to be demonstrated as he sped over the line for a try. To make matters worse from the Burton restart Bournville surged forward and a clever scissor move between their two centres saw Burton’s defence opened up as one of then raced through to score under the posts. Their kicker added the two extra points and his team ended the first half a somewhat surprisingly 19-6 in the lead.

Just after the break Archer added another penalty goal to his tally to take the score to 19-9 and while this was going on Burton took off Ben Peach and replaced him by bringing on Mark Ovens at fullback and switching Danny Campbell to scrumhalf. But before Burton could settle the opposition stormed back to get a converted try and increase their lead to 26-9.

Burton were not to be outdone and another Archer penalty attempt sailed over the bar to take the score to 26-12. But with Burton still trying to run the ball rather than using the strong wind that was at their backs Bournville scored another unconverted try to increase their lead to 31-12.

By failing to utilise the elements Burton had to make ground by running and passing the ball but all too often fine handling moves were wasted as the ball flowed across the pitch making no headway or the ball was lost or spilt and the hard work had to be done all over again. However, one great piece of inter passing between Matt Tivey, Lawrence Betty, Dutton and Fitchett saw Campbell take the final pass to dart over for a try that Archer converted to revive Burton hopes. But alas this was to be Burton’s final fling as they continued to ignore the value of the strong wind at their backs and tried to run the ball out of defence rather than putting boot to ball to gain field position. These error ridden tactics played into the opposition hands whose prowess in loose play gave them turnover after turnover as Burton struggled to retain possession.

As the game wore on so Bournville’s control and confidence increased as the home side ran in four more tries as Burton struggling to keep in the game and began to look half the side they had been in the first half of the game. The final try of the match summed up Burton’s second half efforts as the pack wilted under constant pressure to concede a penalty try and give Bournville a winning 53-19 score that for the first thirty-eight minutes had seemed to be far from the expected result.