AFTER last week’s demolition of Dunlop, Burton took to the field at Kenilworth looking for a similar scoreline against the bottom of the league side, and while the outcome was never really in doubt, the margin was far closer than supporters had hoped for.
But at the end of the game, Burton travelled home with a win and another five points to their credit after a match in which they outscored their opponents by four tries to one to earn the extra bonus point.
Good pressure from the kick-off saw Jake Manning take play forward with the help of a powerful surge by his forwards, but a knock-on by Burton saw the home side get the first scrum.
After three or four more phases, Manning released the ball out wide for Dave Archer to carve through the middle and feed Lewis Brooks, who crashed over in the corner to open Burton’s account with a 5-0 lead.
Brooks was then harshly penalised for holding on to the ball when isolated and Kenilworth took full advantage to kick a goal and take the score to 5-3 after 20 minutes.
Kenilworth started to put together some good moves that were helped by Burton’s poor tackling to let them move ever closer towards the Burton line.
Laziness in Burton’s defence after thirty minutes gave the home side chance to take the lead with another well-struck penalty for offside.
But, having taken the lead, Kenilworth were forced to play the next 10 minutes with 14 men after they had a player yellow carded to persistent slowing the ball down as Burton pressurised their line and to the hosts’ credit. they took full advantage of the extra man as they scored 12 vital points.
Although Archer missed the fairly easy penalty goal Burton started to play and some great inter-passing saw the ball get to within five metres of the home line, where Manning was forced to leave the field with a knee injury.
This resulted in a massive reshuffle in Burton’s ranks, with Ian Gilmour going to scrumhalf, Dutton to centre, Archer to wing, and Mark Ovens to full-back as Ken Archer came off the bench to play No 8.
However, all these changes did little to stop Burton’s dominance as they powered forward.
A clearance by Kenilworth was safely gathered by Peach who passed and looped round Ovens to feed Danny Smith.
The winger easily ran round two Kenilworth players before passing to Brooks to race in for his second try of the day.
Archer added the conversion and Burton now led 12-6 with more to come.
With the clock showing six minutes of injury time, Burton turned over the ball just inside the opponents half and Browne emerged from the melee of players to twist and turn his way towards the home line.
When stopped he found Nathan Taylor in support who turned and fed Dave Fitchett for the flanker to crash over the line for Burton’s third try and take Burton into a 17-6 lead at the break.
Burton soon added to this as Cartwright took the restart but his pass was knocked-on and from the scrum Kenilworth kicked into the Burton 22.
Archer gathered the ball and started an excellent counter attack that saw Brooks complete his hat-trick.
From inside the 22, Archer linked with Smith and the pair raced 40 metres up-field, where they were joined by Fitchett and Brooks, and after some slick inter-passing Fitchett fed Brooks for the centre to crash over in the corner and take the score to 22-6.
Kenilworth struck back immediately as Archer took the restart, but his hurried pass was knocked on for a home scrum.
From this, they moved the ball forward and a rolling maul saw their prop drive over the line for a converted try to cut Burton’s lead to 22-13.
Browne was then yellow carded for failing to release and Kenilworth’s kicker gratefully accepted the three points on offer.
Archer’s restart was attacked and Eastwood put in a great tackle on the catcher, forcing him to hang onto the ball and concede a penalty.
Archer made amends for some of his earlier misses with a well-struck kick that sailed over the bar from 40 metres and Burton now led 25- 16.
A penalty against Hamilton gave the home kicker to give his side a bonus point as his kick sailed over to produce a 25-19 final score line that concealed Burton’s control and domination.
