Who would be higher up the league table if they had not been deducted points for playing an illegible player. From the kick off Burton were on the attack immediately and were awarded a penalty as one of the Doncaster forwards killed the ball. Will Simpson kicked the goal to put the home team into the lead.

This was to be their only score of the half however as they struggled against the pace and power of the opposition whose forwards were quicker to the breakdown and whose backs were fast with superb running and passing skills. Although Burton did have a share of the ball they were unable to make any headway as they made handling errors or executed poor kicks which put themselves under pressure. The visitors ran in six tries, three of which were converted, to make the score at half time 3-36.

Immediately after the restart the visitors’ scrum half made a break from the base of the scrum on the Burton 10 metre line. The Burton defence was unable to catch him, and he ran in to score. The try was converted to bring the score to 3-43.

There followed a quiet period in the game where the visitors seemed happy to sit back and repel any attack that Burton might throw at them. Realising that they already had the game won, they played with less intensity and made some handling errors of their own. After one of these errors the ball was passed along the back line to Chaz Bunting who having switched from scrum half to the wing ran in to score the home team’s first try. Simpson realising that the extra points would not make a difference to the result attempted a quick drop goal for the conversion to try and save time, but he missed.

From the restart Lelo Gemashe charged through the Doncaster defence. When he was finally brought down the ball was recycled quickly and passed to Jack Neal who scored in the corner. The conversion was again attempted quickly and missed.

Burton were soon in action again as they attempted to run the ball out of defence. They were awarded a penalty which took them into the visitors’ half. They won the ball and drove forward again. The ball was recycled and passed to Loz Betty who sold a dummy to his opposite number and ran into score. The conversion was again missed.

Burton tried hard to get the fourth try so that they would earn at least one bonus point but although individual forwards made some good carries they were isolated and therefore could not recycle the ball quickly enough. They eventually ran out of time and so failed to get a bonus point. The final score was Burton 18 Doncaster Phoenix 43.