The team were in good spirits following their win away at Nuneaton last week. They came under a bit of pressure early on but soon showed their superiority in the forwards when following a Lions’ penalty, they stole the lineout ball and cleared it up to the halfway line. Then Chaz Bunting made a break which took Burton into the visitors 22 where they were awarded a penalty. They kicked for the corner and from the lineout the pack drove over to open the scoring. Hooker James Davies got the touch down. Bunting playing at fullback in the absence of Will Simpson, and taking on the kicking duties, added the extra two points.

It was not long before the home team were putting pressure on the opposition again. Good work from the forwards forced Peterborough to turn the ball over. It was passed quickly along the back line and winger Alex Nesbitt joined the line in the centre to crash through and score the second try. Bunting again converted.

By this time Burton were playing with confidence and through a mixture of poor tackling by the visitors and strong running by the Burton backs and forwards alike, they again got into the Lions’ 22 where Bunting joined the line and outstripped the defence to score. He converted his own try from about two metres inside the touch line.

The bonus point try came a short time later when fly half Harry Titley threw a perfectly timed short pass to centre Josh Kent who crashed through to score under the posts. Bunting again added the extra points.

The visitors were unable to prevent Burton from scoring a further three tries before half time. The first of these came when after the forwards had driven into the Peterborough 22, the ball was passed along the back line to winger Harris Mountford who scored in the corner. The second came when flanker Jack Barry Neal was stopped short of the line and prop Ben Smith was on hand to pick up the ball and dive over. Finally, when Burton had worked their way into the visitors’ 22 again, Davies finding himself in the centre crashed through one tackle and the ran like a winger to beat the full back and score his second try of the afternoon. Bunting only managed to convert one of these tries so the score at half time was 45-0.

The visitors started the second half much better than they started the first, though it is fair to say that Burton had eased up and to some extent let them back into the game. In a somewhat turgid second half both sides made mistakes and Burton were penalised for a series of offences at the breakdown ending with captain Dominic “Spud” Taylor getting sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. While he was off the Lions finally got the ball moving along the back line and the winger scored in the corner. The conversion was missed.

When Burton were back to full strength the Lions never looked like scoring again but the home team also seemed unable to penetrate a defence that seemed more solid than in the first half. However, Burton had the last word when, at a scrum on the Peterborough five metre line, the visitors’ front row stood up and the referee awarded a penalty try. This was close to the end of the match and there was no further significant action. The final score was Burton 52 Peterborough Lions 5.