It was cold, windy, and wet this morning as Burton arrived at Melbourne with two teams ready to play. Melbourne were able to field one team on a smaller than normal pitch, but there were no complaints from us on the conditions or space.
The team turned up ready to play, with their confidence and spirits high.
The first team captained by Jacob 'Shack attack' Shackles managed to score several tries in the first 10 minutes of play by offloading in the tackle to support runners in space. This is something we have been working on, so the coaches were delighted to see the players put this into practice from the start.
There wasn't much of a defensive effort in this game from Burton as it was all about their attack. Some strong ball carrying again by Callum Dagleish and Ellis Reeves saw them both run over for multiple scores. Benny Brown and Jacob Wellesley - getting slightly bored with no one to tackle, secured the ball well in the ruck and started pushing towards the try line themselves. They pinned Melbourne in their own half for most of the game by working together as a team to get over the try line.
Team -2 Captained by Billy Wakelin also had their fair share of successes when they ran on to replace the first team. Melbourne had woken up by this point and started to carry the ball better. Some great tackling by Ben Blakeman, Oliver James and Jaiden Sidhu kept Melbourne out from scoring. The smaller pitch prevented the team's runners from getting into their stride on the wings but Burton still managed to battle forward and get over the try line for multiple scores.
It gets harder and harder to select 2 players for the awards when the progression of each individual is so evident with every game they play.
We were so proud of them all today for the way in which they played as a team, for their club and for each other.
Today though, while one team was off waiting to play, we utilised the time by working on our mauling. We coached the players a move from the back of the maul and asked them if they could see if they could pull this off during the next game.
Ellis Reeve and Albey Eley did just that! Ellis ran the ball into contact and turned, calling Albey in to secure the ball. Albey ran in, secured and drove then rolled off with the ball, running into space and straight over the try line to score! Wow! We were so impressed. They both had a great game today but pulling off this move won them the players of the game awards for the week! Well done boys!
Well done to the whole team today for their efforts. We love seeing them all improve as each week passes and couldn't be more proud of our fantastic U11's.