Worcester U7 Festival

The Under 7’s team travelled to a sunny Worcester to take part in the Worcester Under 7’s festival on Sunday 1st April. This took place in the Sixways Stadium on the Premiership pitch (a fact which excited parents and coaches much more than the players!) and the quality of opposition matched the surroundings.

The Burton squad was depleted through availability, injury and illness so we had a group of 8 up against squads of 12.

Burton squad: Alex Garrett, Antony Bryan, Archie Fotheringham, Ben Smith, Billy Forrester, Dan Smith, Ethan Pepperell, Jake Geering

Burton were drawn in a tough group and started against Worcester Yellows, a team we have played twice and either drawn with or narrowly beaten. The match stayed true to form and was very close throughout ending in a 30-30 draw.

The team then had a good rest before playing Thornbury and running out 35-20 winners. A good win but the lack of subs started to show with some tired legs towards the end of the game.

The rest of the games came much quicker and Burton were soon back in action against Kidderminster. Early in the second half Burton held a two try lead and looked good value for a second victory but Kidderminster rallied strongly and hit back late on to force a draw at 30-30.

This still left an undefeated Burton team in a strong position in the pool but the players were getting very tired by this point.

The crunch game for Burton was their next fixture against Pontypridd. Unfortunately as Burton were showing signs of tiredness Pontypridd were getting into their stride after 2 early defeats and they eventually won the match 20-15.

Other results went against Burton too and they faced their last fixture against Silhillians, the strongest team in the pool, with only 7 fit players and unlikely to reach any of the finals even with a win. The team worked very hard but strong Silhillians running and a couple of minor handling errors meant Burton were 15-0 down after barely 2 minutes. They fought hard but in the end lost the tie 45-20.

It was a disappointing end but overall a great day in the sun and in a great stadium. The team played their hearts out throughout and should be proud of their performance in difficult circumstances and against very strong opposition.

Final Table

Won Drawn Lost For Against Points

Silhillians 4 1 0 29 14 9
Worcester Y 2 2 1 31 27 6
Pontypridd 3 0 2 19 16 6
Kidderminster 2 1 2 24 21 5
Burton 1 2 2 25 28 4
Thornbury 0 0 5 11 33 0