You wouldn’t have thought that the Burton under 22’s had not played together as a team before. Any outsider watching the game could easily have been mistaken by interpreting their timing, pace and accuracy during the opening fifteen minutes as belonging to a team who were playing regular fixtures together. The truth was however that this team had in fact been brought together from the many corners of the UK during that evening.

The Burton forwards piled the pressure on early, constantly recycling the ball and pushing their opposition onto the back foot. Their effort was rewarded with Sam Benjamin surging through Market Harboroughs defence to put the ball down after only eight minutes. This was confidently converted by Ben Marshall,one of many players returning to Burton from University.

Market Harborough then began to shake off their coach journey and pushed Burton into their own 10metres forcing a knock on and enabling their number eight to pick up from the back of the scrum to bring the score level. Marshall and Harry Titley used their kicking skills to good use seeking opportunities to return their team nearer to the oppositions try line. As a consequence a charge down clearance was carefully collected by Matt Boden and fed to Dewi Williams who scored under the posts.

Once the game had settled down, both teams needed to be at their best to defend, the muddy conditions made the going tough with the ball slipping away and swapping sides continually. With five minutes remaining of the first half Titley kicked through their defensive line to their full back who was immediately brought down although his support enabled the ball to be kicked away back into Burton’s half. Williams caught it and ran back at them and just as he was tackled he skillfully laid it back to Marshall who scored yet again. The half time score was 19-5 in Burton’s favour.

The second half was however a different story with Market Harborough dictating the play and scoring after only ten minutes. With the score at 19-15 Burton brought on the fresh legs of Luke Upton at Fly half and Steve McRobbie to full back both of whom made an immediate impact although Upton’s appearance was cut short with an injury. The visitors however were still on a roll and soon took the lead when their number eight again picking up from another scrum close to the Burton try line only to feed his colleague who scored an unconverted try.

Burton appeared to lose their shape and struggled for a while to bring some assemblance of order to what had previously been a solid defence. During this dark period Market Harborough scored a converted try stretching their lead to 19-27. Maybe the change in possession was due to the rotation of players but to their credit Burton persevered and eventually returned to finish the game off with a repeat of the flowing attacking rugby which they had first started with. It was to no avail as the final whistle followed soon after although this surge of attacking rugby helped to pick up their spirits and provide hope to the large crowd. Burtons captain Adam Brooks, who had proved to be an inspirational leader during the game,was pleased with Burtons performance and commented on how proud he had been to lead this new and promising team. The final word has to go to the referee who was not only impressed with the standard of rugby from both sides but also the good nature of the game. This was in addition to the fact that players from both sides were constantly heard running around the pitch planning future games and nights on the town!