Uttoxeter RFC

On a fine Saturday afternoon, Uttoxeter began their season with an away day at Coventry for a friendly fixture against Old Yardlians, a team 2 divisions higher than the town in the league structure.

Skipper Andrew Moult has high hopes this season for the team to do well in both league and cup competitions. He was looking for a good display from his men to continue the fine form they showed at the end of last season when they won the Owen Cup back in May.

The team that started comprised of Dan Meads, Steve Woolley and Rob Page in the front row. Skipper Moult was paired with Plant in the second row with Lampitt, Mike Davies and Jason Cabrera in the back row.

Burnett began the game at scrum half, a position he looks destined to play for many years for the club. Jim Williams showed his versatility when he stepped in to play at fly half.

Aaron Lakin played inside centre with Pete Allen outside centre.

Dan Roberts and James Gill played on the wings with Steve Harris as ever playing at full back.

Skipper Moult weighed in with two typical barnstorming tries. Harris played a brilliant match making several mazy runs and scoring two excellent tries.

Roberts continued his red-hot scoring streak from last season with a hat-trick of tries.

Pete Allen scored a try and was his usual bullocking self, completely over-whelming his older opponents.

Josh Burnett capped off his good display at half back with a fine try.

Tom Lampitt also scored a well worked try and put in a typical hard working performance linking well with his back row colleagues, notably Jason Cabrera who year in year out continues to show his younger team mates the way with a tireless display of constant running and cover tackling.

John Paull came off the bench for a debut in the first team and marked his first match with a try. He showed glimpses of his great potential and looks to be a certain back rower for the first team for the next 15 years.

Gordon Richardson and Gordon Tomkinson also came on in the second half to bolster the pack. Both played very well with the stalwart Richardson showing there is plenty of life left in his rugby boots.

Try of the match was scored by Jim Williams. Old Yardlians made a mess of a lineout on the half way line and the fly half scooped up the loose ball off the floor. He ran through the fly half and centre and with only the full back he executed a superb side step to bamboozle the defender and Williams was able to touch down under the posts for a superb individual score.

With Harris added the extras with the boot, Uttoxeter managed to win the match by a convincing 71-5. Although the home side was a mixture of first and second teamers, the town side put in a great performance linking well as a team, passing the ball out wide well and scoring some well worked tries. They also defended extremely well.

The club have no formal fixture arranged this week but have arranged a club training match that will be two sides containing a mixture of first and development team players from last season. Skipper Moult is taking the opportunity to look at all players as he formulates his first team squad for the upcoming league and cup campaign.