A warm and clear morning fueled the optimism of our intrepid charges that today would be the day when they would turn the "red" losses into an encouraging "green" victory.
There was an excellent turnout for the game which is really encouraging and special thanks goes to the lads that volunteered their services to play for Ashbourne.
It was a competitive game upfront with our very own ABC club of Oli, Monty and Riley working incredibly well as a unit with great back up from Herbie and Dougie. Tom Hodder was inspired today with some marauding forays into enemy territory - i think we have found our very own exocet - remember "In Hod we Trust..."
The backs too were lively with some great interlinking play with Ethan, Josh, Jude and Conor resulting in a penalty deep into the opposition half. Quick thinking from Aidan at the penalty giving Alfie the opportunity to go over in the corner and open the scoring. A few minutes later the backs were inter linking again and some sharp passing resulted in the Skipper (Jude) opening his account for the season. Burton certainly looked dominant at this point.
However,back game Ashbourne with two quick tries to level the scores and it looked as though Burton had lost a little of their early zip, but back they came. This time some great forward work released our very own Bulldog, Riley Cormack, he had a far way to travel but managed to repel any challenge thrown at him - the lad must have his very own force field. Over he went in the corner for his first Burton try and regained the lead. Well done Riley - a really well deserved and popular try.
Then it was the turn of the backs - again great combinations and support play in the midfield with Ethan/Jude and Rhys helping to release Conor on several occasions resulting in him scoring the first hat trick of the year (Congrats and wheres the Coaches Treats....). A fabulous solo effort from our very own Welsh Wizard Aidan Raw saw him jink through the opposition for a fabulous score.
And finally Job going over on the blind side with a fantastic sniping run.
All in all a good day, some great leadership, team spirit and skill shown today - we continue to improve but there is still much work to do.
Burton run out 40-10 victors.....