Stoke U16's v Burton U16's

The first league game of the season saw U16’s travel to Stoke on Trent, a few years since we last played each other and it turned out that the sides were well matched as it was a good 20 minutes before the first score came, this when winger Steve crossed wide out. Burton then came under some consistent Stoke pressure and failed to clear their lines when the opportunities came, paying the price with Stoke going over wide out to even up the scores. Half time scores 5 V 5.
The second half Stoke changed tack slightly and gave the ball to the backs a bit more and chipped through, this worked well until Burton got to grips with it, but Stoke did score a 7 pointer close to the posts. Burton replied when big Cam powered his way over from close range after a good series of runs close to the rucks and re-cycled possession. The game then took a turn with Burton kicking to the corner but failed to chase it down and Stoke ran and return kicked this to our 22m recycled it quickly and scored from close range. With 5 minutes to go Burton got field position and produced another series of powerful runs close to the ruck and recycled possession this time big Joe S going over to score, half way between the posts and flag. Scores tied 17 v 17. Marcus took the conversion, it was going wide, unfortunately a Stoke player had shouted when charging the ball and the referee rightly called for it to be retaken, this time it went over for the win. A tad hard on Stoke and in particular the player that had called out, I think if the scores had been tied we would have had no complaints.
On the positives, decent line out, the scrum held up well against a bigger front row and the rucking was good. Good hitting the line at pace in particular from Steve coming off his wing (not alone in this) and the defence in the middle of the park was excellent. Things to work on: simple team work and composure. This team has bags of potential and can and will win games, however that’s not been the case for a few seasons and they need to get used to the fact they can play good rugby and won’t always be the plucky underdogs.
Finally a word for the ref, who let the game flow and the x 2 Burton lads who came off injured are both OK and will be back with us shortly.