Success in Lichfield

Lichfield 0-10 Burton
Lichfield started the first game and found themselves under immense pressure from an enthusiastic Burton defence, Lichfield soon found themselves on their try line and the try looked on for Burton as they forced the mistake, but for a silly handling error by Burton, that saw Lichfield race to the half way line before being stopped by a good tackle by Hector Abel. More dogged defence from Burton saw them turn the ball over and launch an all out attack. The pitch was a little too narrow for Olly Gibbs to work his usual lines, and he was soon held up, but some good rucking from Burton saw them edge closer to line and finally Eddy Brown powered through the centre of the ruck to score. Lichfield had plenty of ball and weren't shy in going forward, but Burton's defence was outstanding again, Marcus Tolley, Ben Mumford and Cameron Callow not allowing the anything through the middle and Benji Blackham, hector Abel and Olly Gibbs firmly closing the door on the flanks. The forwards, Eddy Brown, Tom Harrison and Thomas Allanson-Smith out rucked their hosts, had it not been for the lack of the offside rule, Mumford would of had an easier time to get the ball away. The power of the forwards saw them win scrum after scrum and Mumford kept releasing Abel down the wing, who made valuable ground and when he got caught his forwards powered through to secure good ball. On one such occasion Brown darted down the edge of the ruck to trundle over the line to score Burton's second and final score. The second half saw two equally matched sides battering each other, but neither side relented and the score remained the same.

Lichfield 10-5 Burton
The second game saw Burton field a development team. Again the game was close, the tackles were hard and the rucking impressive. The new look front row of Cameron Maughan, Charlie Evans and Ryan Walker really stepped up to the mark and held their own. Jack Montgomery reprised his old role of scrum half and had his best game of the season. The wings were well defended again by Owen Jones and Tal Fitzsimmons. If anything the young Crofters were guilty of being a little naive and gave away a couple of early tries to a hard working Lichfield team. When Burton found their feet the match became an equal affair with some good play from both sides, some good passing from Burton nearly opened the door, but Lichfield's defence seemed to have the extra man that thwarted the attack. When Burton did finally break though, the ball found its way to Blackham who dived over to bag himself a try. The game, like the first one, became a battle of attrition and drew to a close with no further scores. The pleasing thing from Burton's perspective was, even though the game was lost, that the development team kept battling till the final whistle and they all got stuck in, Charlie Evans and Cam Maughan were back to their old selves, putting themselves about and being general pains to the opposition, Jack Montgomery regained his old form, Owen Jones put in some good tackles and had some good runs and Tal Fitzsimmons busied himself and got a bit of dirt on his shirt.

Lichfield 5-10 Burton
The final match saw two weary looking teams enter the arena. The tackles were still hard but Burton seemed to still have the advantage up front, however, Lichfield started brightest and were the first to register a score. With the Backs finding it hard to find any room, it was left to the forwards to do the hard work, this showed as through a lot of rucking and mauling, which the backs joined in to give it that extra umph. As the match drew on and the backs successfully kept out a rampant Lichfield attack, the Burton pack secured two trys for what was an entertaining for all the players and spectators alike.

A big thanks goes to Lichfield for hosting us today. It was a hard but fair contest between two equally matched teams. Burton had to produce one of their best forward performances to date to get anything from the game, and they did, the backs, starved of any good ball, put in a very good defensive performance. But the most satisfying part of the day was seeing the the development team coming leaps and bounds and rekindling the form they had lost.
A big well done goes to all the boys today, thanks for an entertaining days rugby, nearly as enterttaining as watching the parents join in the warm up.