On a warm, sunny bright afternoon Burton travelled down the M5 to start their new league campaign against Worcester Wanderers full of optimism after two pre-season victories had given their confidence a boost. However, with injuries to several of last season’s key players and the unavailability of others it was a relatively inexperienced pack that took on the opposition, while the backs did contain most of last seasons guard.

Dave Archer kicked off long down the slope to start the game and try to get into Worcester territory, but a great clearance from the opposition fly half took play straight back to the half way line. But Burton’s Jon Edwards took an excellent line out at the back which was released from the forwards and Darryl Banton spun the ball out on to Matt Davies whose deft footwork took play into the opposition twenty-two before the ball was spilled by Button and the first scrum of the game was set.

Unfortunately the scrum was reset several times as the packs were jostling for position. But Instead of penalising one of the many offences from both sides the scrum was reset four times before play eventually restarted again! Gradually Worcester then started to gain the upper hand largely due to them being the first to pretty much every breakdown and twice threatened Burton's line but last ditch tackles from Archer, Lewis Brooks and Davies kept the line intact and Button in the game.

Then Davies, showing plenty of promise on his league debut, broke through several tackles showing good footwork before being hauled down twenty metres out and some more poor handling once again put paid to Burton's good position.

The referee then gave a very dubious penalty against Archer for not releasing the player he had just tackled, who had however not released the ball in the tackle! This cost the Crofters heavily as from the next play Worcester kicked to touch and drove over the line to open the scoring and lead 5-0. But Just five minutes later Worcester were harshly judged to have infringed in the scrum but Burton capitalise as Archer accepted the three points on offer to take the score to 5-3.

The rest of the half saw Burton defending with Worcester applying increasing immense pressure before the Burton line was finally breached to give them a 10-3 lead. Then with the final play of the half Burton were caught sleeping out wide and a soft try saw Wanderers to extend their lead to 15-3.

The second half started with the ball not going ten-metres and from the scrum on half-way Burton were rewarded with a penalty from due to the home prop not binding. But from 50 metres Archer’s attempt hit the upright but the ball bounced into Worcester hands and was kicked to safety. For all their possession Burton were struggling to make ground and penetrate until Archer and Lawrence Betty both made cutting runs.

The pressure was starting to build now on the Worcester line and the opposition were pulling down mauls left right and centre but unfortunately these offences went unpunished as Burton worked hard to maintain field position. Once again Burton kicked for about the fifth time from a penalty and drove the ensuing maul almost 20 metres before it was dragged down one metre prior to the line but again the offending player went unpunished and Worcester again cleared their lines.

Burton's forwards were starting to dominate and were awarded another penalty which Archer slotted over from 30 metres to put the score at 15-6 with 20 minutes to go. Some excellent play from the forwards took play up field before Ian Gilmour fed Davies who raced in to score on his first team league debut and take the score to 15-11.

Worcester however took the kick off and controlled play for several phases before running in an almost unopposed try as the Burton players failed to get into position quickly enough to stop their opposition.

A directive from Coach Steve Smith to throw the ball wide at any opportunity saw Burton playing their best rugby of the game and this tactic paid off as Gilmour scampered through the opposition defence to score an excellent try on the final whistle and grab Burton a losing bonus point.

Coach Steve Smith said that Wanderers possibly deserved their win due to their more positive rugby and being quicker to the breakdowns, but he felt that the Referee not penalising the dropping of mauls cost Burton dear. He was also critical of Burton’s work-rate and concluded by saying that unless we improve our play at breakdowns and start to work harder this year is going to be a long season. On a more upbeat note he felt that once all players are injury free and available the more options to select from would enhance the squad’s performances.