BURTON RFC are celebrating a memorable season after winning the Midlands One title to gain promotion to the National League system for the first time.
Throughout the season, the team led by skipper Tom Bartram played open and attacking rugby and were crowned worthy champions.
On their way to the title, the Crofters scored 152 tries of which 86 were converted along with 26 penalty goals plus one drop goal to make a grand total of 1013 points for, while conceding only 313. The result of all these points gave Burton a playing record for the season of 28 wins, one draw and only four defeats.
Top try scorer was Dan Smith with 24 tries, while another seven players each scored more than 10 tries each.
Bartram amassed a total 277 points from tries, conversions, drop and penalty goals.
After three pre-season friendlies that didn’t exactly set the world on fire and possibly had home supporters worried about what the held in store, Burton got their competitive rugby under way with a fine 46-7 away victory over Wolverhampton in the first round of the Staffordshire County Cup.
This helped settle supporters’ worries and gave the team the confidence it needed in its own abilities to face their major hurdle, namely league success and promotion.
It was left to local county rivals, Walsall, to provide the bread for the delicious sandwich filling that was to follow for the rest of the season.
Early in September, Peel Croft was the venue for the first league game and it witnessed Burton inflict a whitewash defeat on Walsall by 32-0.
Then in April the last league fixture, also against Walsall at their Delves Road ground, proved to be even more exhilarating as Burton turned on the power and style to produce a 70-7 victory to ensure the league title and automatic promotion.
In between these two great results the Burton team only foundered in the two games against Bournville, which were lost 24-14 and 55-13.
Despite the first of these defeats following directly on from the first Walsall win, the Burton team soon showed they had the quality and resolve to bounce back and quickly put this defeat behind them with a run of 10 straight victories.
This run saw them defeat Whitchurch, Camp Hill, Cheltenham North, Dudley, Leamington, Nuneaton OE’s, Halesonians, Solihull, Stoke and Stratford and, in doing so, they scored 453 points and conceded only 87 to put themselves on top of the league table.
With Christmas approaching Burton’s next two games saw them become benevolent and errors in their play some them become a little too over generous as they could only draw, 17-17, at Sutton Coldfield. In the next game against bogey side Bournville, despite having a consistent territorial advantage, two lapses in concentration saw the crofters gift opportunities to lose their unbeaten home record Fortunately, other league results had gone in Burton’s favour and as the harsh winter weather approached they still held top spot in the league and could look forward to the rest of the season full of confidence.
During the enforced lay-off due to postponements, the Burton squad continued to take full advantage of all-weather training areas in and around the town and were able to keep up their fitness thanks to the high-level of players commitment.
By mid-January and after an abortive trip to Whitchurch the squad was raring to go and it was visitors Cheltenham North who bore the brunt of their eagerness as they were defeated 56-0 on Peel Croft.
This was followed by another unbeaten run of nine games that saw defeats for Dudley, Leamington, Whitchurch, Nuneaton OE’s, Halesonians, Camp Hill, Stoke and Stratford scoring 335 points and conceding only 93.
Then came the final fixture against Walsall and the rest is history.
After securing the league title and promotion Burton played two more fixtures — the first of which was against national league opposition, Longton, in the final of the County Cup at Stoke.
Although losing 22-10, Burton were not disgraced but both players and coaches were made to realise that reinforcements will be needed if they are to compete in next year’s league campaign.
Similarly the 40-23 RFU Knockout Cup defeat against Scunthorpe, who also gained promotion to the National League this season, showed that Burton could score points against this level of opposition.
But once again the game demonstrated that more strength in depth is needed so that replacements will be able to make the necessary impact when they appear and the team can compete for the full 80 minutes.
To this end Burton are already actively advertising and canvassing new players to try and strengthen the depth and quality of the squad for the new and exciting season.
Assuming that more players are recruited and the existing squad remains intact then next season should see Burton competing as a force to be reckoned with in their new league.
Certainly the level of commitment displayed this year and the team’s ability to graft to achieve results will stand them in good stead.
