B's v Whittington

B's looked forward to the return match against our near neighbor's Whittington with great anticipation and were expecting the Whitt lads to come firing on all cylinders after the away fixture where we went with a really strong team and put 50 points on them ...bragging rights in the club after were at stake !!! .
The weather was interesting to say the least with heavy rain during the week and strong winds on game day, so in short a great day for forwards dominated rugby and it didn't disappoint. We selected a strong forward orientated team with a great mix of experience in Stu Hutton ,Jamie Parker , Paz , Philly and Will Forrester and Colts Charlie Q , Matt and James Thompson and Jude Patrick making his senior debut.

Whittington won the toss and decided to kick with the wind at their backs and soon made this pay scoring a good try that was converted after just 5 minutes . Clever restarts from Philly though put us in there half and having to throw into the line out in the gale like conditions was always tricky , the Whitt lads used the wind well and pinned us back with some clever kicks from their 10 as well , we did when we had chance though try and run the ball and get it out to our wingers and it was on one of these occasions that saw us pass through forwards into the backs with Joe Ensor taking the ball at pace and going past a couple of would be defenders and then pass to winger Brad Jeffries who had tracked his run to score with a theatrical swallow dive to register our first points of the day after 15 minutes the extra's missed as the conversion was from out wide as the aforementioned swallow dive could have been under the posts ...Brad winning DOD for this .

Score B's 5-7 Whittington
The game followed the same pattern for the remainder off the first half which saw Whittington score two more try's with one converted , this period though saw the tensions rise a little as some late shots and high shots going unpunished by the ref one of these unfortunately seeing Matty T taken high by two Whitt tacklers that saw him helped from the field and on his way to A&E to be checked out and hopefully doesnt prove to serious and we get Matty back out playing again in the new year speedy recovery mate .With GHW already off with his own shoulder problems resurfacing it was going to be a test for our bench .

Half Time B;s 5-17 Whittington

We would have been pleased with a 20 point deficit at half time with the wind against ,so to go in just 12 down we were happy of being able to turn this around with the wind at our backs .Some key changes in personnel at half time saw Will come on at 8 , Charlie Quinton on the wing and Jude on in the center's . Pretty much from the off we were on the offensive and it didn't take long for us to register our second score of the day with Jude making his debut and scoring on 45 minutes with CQ adding the extra two points from a difficult angle.

Score B's 12-17 Whittington

The Whittington 10 was struggling to get much distance with his kicks and the resultant restart didn't go 10 so we were on the attack again and we stayed at the right end of the field for a a period of time which saw dominance in the set piece and big carries from the back row time and again from one of these saw Stoney pick and go and eventually score close to the posts to bring us level after 60 minutes.

Score B's 17-17 Whittington

We probably felt that it was now our time to stretch the lead further but fair play to the Whitt lads they came back immediately and scored another and their Bonus Point Try so we had to regroup and go again, a few more tactical changes happened with Tom Worrell coming on in the second row and a multi tasking Paz having started in the back row , moved to center now finding himself at hooker for the remainder of the game, it only took us a few minutes to bring the scores back level again , Stoney scoring his second of the day in similar fashion this time the extra's added by Charlie .

Score B's 24 -24 Whittington

Both teams entered the last 10 minutes looking for the win , it was the B's that took the initiative though as we pushed deep into their 22 , a knock on though by a white shirt halted our progress and gave Whittington the put in , they probably thought an opportunity to clear their lines ...the pack had other ideas though and a big push from the Burton 8 saw us take one against the head and 2 phases later scrum half Joe Ensor after initially carrying into contact saw him realign and take the ball and with a sublime chip over the defence with little space to operate in and touch down with inches to spare ...check the video out .Charlie adding the extra 2 points from out wide to give us the win .

Final Score B's 31-24 Whittington

In summary difficult conditions but a great game played between two evenly matched sides , we triumphed to register another BP win which keeps us top of the tree . MOM Joe Ensor DOD Brad Jeffries

Look out for the RFU updates as the B's have been awarded Levels 9-12 Team of the month for November we have submitted a summary of what we are about with some supporting photos and video .