Burton travelled to Scunthorpe on Saturday to play a Midlands Premier league match against the Lincolnshire side who are currently top of the table.

It was a bitterly cold day with an icy wind blowing straight down the pitch so quality rugby was always going to be difficult. Both sides made errors in the early exchanges and both sides conceded penalties for offences at the breakdown. However, none of these was close enough to attempt a kick at goal so neither side benefitted.

Although Scunthorpe are known for the quality of their ball retention Burton were able to steal the ball in contact on several occasions. On one such occasion when the home team were threatening the Burton line, the ball was passed to full back Will Simpson who cleared the ball up to the halfway line. Burton won the ball again and Simpson then made a break to carry the ball almost to the try line. The ball was recycled and passed to Saba Svimonishvili to score a try on his Debut. Simpson missed the conversion.

The next period of the game was hard fought with both defences being on top. Burton eventually got into the Scunthorpe half and after a good drive by the forwards the ball was passed to Svimonishvili who had switched from the wing to fly half. He sold a dummy to his opposite number, made a break and then passed inside to Simpson who scored under the posts. Simpson converted his own try.

The home team may have been a little complacent having beaten Burton convincingly at Peel Croft earlier in the season and may have been stunned initially by the quality of the Burton attack, but they now showed why they are at the top of the league. They worked their way from their own half into the Burton 22 without losing the ball and were then awarded a penalty on the 5 metre line. They took a tap and the forwards drove over the line. The try was converted with the last kick of the half, so the half time score was 7-12.

Soon after the restart Scunthorpe were on the attack again, but the fly half kicked the ball dead. Burton were awarded a scrum on their own 10 metre line but lost the ball against the head. The ball was passed to the centre who ran through some poor tackling by the Burton backs to score under the posts. The kicker added the extra points to take them into the lead.
Burton then came under a great deal of pressure but their defence was good.

When they got their hands on the ball, they tried to run out of defence rather than kick against the wind. The home team were very sharp at this stage and they kept Burton pinned in their own 22 for long periods. Towards the end of the match Scunthorpe were awarded a penalty. The attempt at goal was missed and this gave the visitors hope that they could still snatch a win. They got into the Scunthorpe 22 but conceded a penalty on the 5-metre line. The Scunthorpe fullback was able to clear the ball to touch and end the game. The final score was Scunthorpe 14 Burton 12.

A hard fought and exciting match despite the conditions, from which Burton perhaps deserved more than the losing bonus point they earned.