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Saints held to a draw
Tony McArdle27 Oct - 14:15
Burton prove to be very good opposition.
Round 7 saw Saints travel to the East Midlands to face the unknown Burton, who Saints have never played before Burton have an impressive facility on the edge of Burton on Trent with multiple floodlit pitches and have put together an impressive squad of players including several from overseas.
With a changed squad due to injury and family commitments Saints kicked off into the wind and it was Saints who struck first, with the ball played through the hands where it found Sam Cotgrave out on the right wing who forced himself over the line for a try converted by Baldwin and a 0-7 lead. Burton now had a decent amount of possession attacking the Saints line at every opportunity, constant pressure finally worked, and their winger outpaced the backline to score out wide, converted and the score 7-7.
With both packs having an almighty struggle in the middle of the pitch, a yellow card was issued to the Burton hooker for going over the ruck and making head contact with Bonner. Saints went for the corner and with the second line out on the 5m line Joe Sanders went up the touchline to score, not converted but making it 7-12. Just before half time Oscar Crowe came off the back of a maul and powered his way over the line, again not converted but giving Saints a comfortable 7-17 half time lead.
Second half it was Burton who seemed to have the majority of the ball, Saints consistently being penalised at the ruck the Ref issued a yellow card to Whittiker for killing the ball and with a man down Burton after turning down the penalty in front of the sticks decided to run the ball and the winger again went over in the corner unconverted 12-17.
One positive for Saint was the scrum, very much on top the pack turned the ball over or crumpled the Burton pack at every opportunity and with a 5m out scrum driven over the line Stu Cross easily just touched down from the 8 position, converted by Baldwin and a more comfortable 12-24 lead. However, buoyed by a decent vocal crowd it was Burton who pounced on every Saints mistake, poor handling, and a missed knock on allowing them to score and bring the score up to 19-24 with the conversion.
With Burton throwing everything into the last play of the game, they deservedly scored out on the right-hand wing, 24-24 all. With the strong breeze to make it difficult luckily for Saints the ball sailed wide, and the points shared. Still unbeaten, still top Saints will have to improve on this performance to stay there, too many errors very nearly cost them defeat.
With a changed squad due to injury and family commitments Saints kicked off into the wind and it was Saints who struck first, with the ball played through the hands where it found Sam Cotgrave out on the right wing who forced himself over the line for a try converted by Baldwin and a 0-7 lead. Burton now had a decent amount of possession attacking the Saints line at every opportunity, constant pressure finally worked, and their winger outpaced the backline to score out wide, converted and the score 7-7.
With both packs having an almighty struggle in the middle of the pitch, a yellow card was issued to the Burton hooker for going over the ruck and making head contact with Bonner. Saints went for the corner and with the second line out on the 5m line Joe Sanders went up the touchline to score, not converted but making it 7-12. Just before half time Oscar Crowe came off the back of a maul and powered his way over the line, again not converted but giving Saints a comfortable 7-17 half time lead.
Second half it was Burton who seemed to have the majority of the ball, Saints consistently being penalised at the ruck the Ref issued a yellow card to Whittiker for killing the ball and with a man down Burton after turning down the penalty in front of the sticks decided to run the ball and the winger again went over in the corner unconverted 12-17.
One positive for Saint was the scrum, very much on top the pack turned the ball over or crumpled the Burton pack at every opportunity and with a 5m out scrum driven over the line Stu Cross easily just touched down from the 8 position, converted by Baldwin and a more comfortable 12-24 lead. However, buoyed by a decent vocal crowd it was Burton who pounced on every Saints mistake, poor handling, and a missed knock on allowing them to score and bring the score up to 19-24 with the conversion.
With Burton throwing everything into the last play of the game, they deservedly scored out on the right-hand wing, 24-24 all. With the strong breeze to make it difficult luckily for Saints the ball sailed wide, and the points shared. Still unbeaten, still top Saints will have to improve on this performance to stay there, too many errors very nearly cost them defeat.
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