With injuries and unavailability creating havoc with Burton’s playing strength it was another young and very inexperienced side that travelled to Dudley for this merit table fixture, and while the result bears this out it does not reflect the endeavour shown by the Burton ‘A’ XV. The more experienced home were better than the youthful Visitors and although Burton fought hard till the end they were never really in the game.

Burton soon realised that they were up against it as Dudley showed their experience and organisation to run in three early tries while the Burton squad were trying to get to know each other. After this initial onslaught Burton did manage to weather the storm a little better as Jason Knight, Dave Fitchett, Phil Harris and Ben Peach put in some try saving tackles to stem the flow. The front row of colt Stuart and James Parker plus Stuart Hutton held their own in set pieces but as the game wore on the continuous pressure from the opposition took its toll and with a make-shift second-row pairing behind them Dudley began to control all set pieces to give their backs plenty of ball. All this possession saw Dudley run in two more tries to go into the break leading 24-0.

The second period saw much of the same with Dudley gaining more and more control, but James Davies, Steve McRobbie, Will Peach and Alex Reeve all showed touches of skill as they struggled to break the home defence. But four more converted tries for Dudley sealed the victory and Burton returned home pointless.

A bad day at the office for Burton ‘A’ XV but the lads that showed up played with plenty of passion and showed bursts of promising play but just could not match Dudley’s power and skill as they ran in try after try. Let’s hope that playing strength and numbers are soon boosted as squad members return from injury and holidays, and Burton’s second string can start to look for a winning formula.