Local Derby Lives Up To Expectations

Burton 35-15 Barton
The match started at a frantic pace, both teams set out their stalls, the tackling was hard and fair. Burton managed to repel an early Barton attack and forced their opponents down the field. Some sterling work from the Burton backs produced a ruck in the visitors half, after Eddy Brown cleared it out Ben Mumford Darted around the fringe and evaded one tackler, then he drew another tackler, which freed his winger, Hecter Abel to recieve the pass and dodge his way over the line. Some hard running by the Barton boys meant that the Burton back line had to be on top form, and they were, Marcus Tolley leading from the front from inside centre. Cameron Callow played a key roll again at fly half. After another attack was thwarted by Benji Blackham, the forwards were allowed to work their magic again, with Eddy brown finally diving over for the try. Another try came as Olly Gibbs continually frustrated the defence with his running lines, before finally giving a perfect pass to Brown for his second. Some hard running by Barton and good support play gave them a well deserved score. The second half saw more of the same from Burton, Tom Harrison and Thomas Allanson-Smith getting in on the act and making their presence known at rucks. Mumford controlled the back of the rucks well, and his ability to draw a defender before giving the pass allowing his team mates a extra bit of time. The back line of Callow, Tolley and Gibbs worked well together again, and this allowed Abel to bag another 2 trys before Callow and Brown finished the scoring.

Burton 10-10 Barton
The second game saw Burton put out a development team, changing positions. With the 3 front row rested it was up to Tal Fitzsimmons, Charlie Evans and Ryan Clay to do all the hard work, and they did a pretty good job. Barton, though had a point to prove, uped their game a bit, and it wasn't long before they got on the score sheet first. Some hard work by the Burton backs saw them go in at half time level, thanks Callow try. Half time saw Burton decide to change the back line a little more and reinstall the front row, this proved to be a good move as the forwards rucking started to be more effective, how ever, the reformation of the backs took a little time to settle, and the game turned into a hard hitting stalemate until, that is, Allanson-Smith darted through a hole and gave Brown some good clean ball to put Burton in the lead, the match ended in a well deserved draw as Barton capitalised on some needless penalties that was given away by Burton.

A big thanks goes out to our neighbours, Barton, for agreeing to come down to a muddy Oxhay at the last minute. The parents today were treated to a game of crunching tackles and some good running by two teams that looked evenly matched, Burtons defence, though, helped win the day, and some excellent running and passing proved to be the winning factor.