Mansfield 36 – 19 Burntwood

With the league finished and Mansfield celebrating promotion, matters moved on to the revamped Papa John’s National Cup competition to hopefully top an already successful season sundae with the proverbial cherry, oval of course. After a victorious outing to Harbourne last week, the blue-and-whites were this week hosting Burntwood, the Staffordshire outfit coming into this game after a promotion-winning season of their own. As expected, this was a largely even affair between two teams who clearly wanted to claim dominance of the midlands. That said, the home team benefitted from the majority of possession and were able to grind out a decent lead that eventually put them out of reach of a resilient opposition.

Head Coach Wayne Robinson was understandably buoyant after the game: ‘This was a good performance from us against strong opposition, I’m proud of the result today.’

With both teams coming off a successful, dominant league showing, it wasn’t going to be a cautious game by any stretch. Almost immediately, the visitors were able to utilise an early scrum advantage to break through the home defence and gun for the line. Only a speculative pass that went to ground halted this move but the marker had been laid down. Mansfield replied in kind with their own phases of play leading to Taryn Elms trying a crossfield kick, a good option that just evaded the hands of winger Rio Turner. This was to be the format for most of the game, both teams trying every option in their arsenal to break through well-organised scramble defences.

After an early penalty attempt was missed, Elms slotted a second to get the blue-and-whites on the board with the first points of the game. It was never going to be enough though. Burntwood used a procession of penalties to repeatedly pound on the defensive door until eventually the hinges sheared and the first try of the game was scored. A successful conversion saw the visitors take the lead at 7-3.

As is often the case in games between two evenly matched teams, the home team struck back almost immediately. Not to be outdone, Mansfield were able to string their own phases of play together to march their way up the field and do some door breaking of their own. Regan Hubbard pounced on a loose ball to claim his team’s first try and eke them into the lead. A missed conversion saw the most slender of leads, 8-7, to the home team.

The home team would add another to their tally before half time with a powerful drive from Kyan Johnson that punctured an otherwise solid defence. A turnover on their own 5 metre line saw the visitors having to switch from attack to defence and Johnson took full advantage to crash over from short range. A successful conversion by Elms saw the home team take a 15-7 lead into half time.

Despite having the lion’s share of possession, Mansfield were unable to put down a real marker on the game during the first half. The blue-and-whites couldn’t always finish the moves they created and would either be turned over on the floor or concede penalties. There was space outside that was there to be utilised but this would largely be left unexploited until the second half. The visitors had the dominance in the scrum and were able to punch holes through the midfield but, again, just couldn’t stamp the final seal on their moves, either coughing up the ball or conceding penalties. Essentially, both teams were evenly matched and weren’t willing to yield.

The second half saw Mansfield able to build a bit more as they again took the majority of possession. An early scrum saw the home team on a much more even keel than the first half which allowed relatively clean ball to get to Zayn Chiappetta who gladly took the opportunity to increase his team’s lead. With the 2 points added by Elms, the lead had extended to 22-7.

Again the visitors were not to be outdone, a lineout close to the Mansfield line saw them spread the ball from one touchline to the other to stretch the opposing defence too far. A quite spectacular use of the full width of the pitch. With the kick missed, the visitors still had work to do at 22-12.

The remainder of the game saw Mansfield begin to squeeze the life out of the visitors with man of the match Josh Housley square in the middle of it all. While discipline issues stunted both teams, it was Burntwood who would suffer the worst of these transgressions with a yellow card shown after repeated infringements. A further penalty saw a quick tap taken just 5 metres out and Ellis Fletcher barrel through the defence to add another. Another 2 by Elms saw Mansfield pulling away into a 29-12 lead.

Then, disaster. Not long after getting back to a full complement of players, a red card was shown to put the visitors on the back foot again. This is always a difficult occurrence to manage, however Burntwood lost one of their best attacking options, their number 8 had carved up the home defence at will numerous times in the first half. While still not lacking in attacking options, this was a big loss.

Despite this, the visitors not only scored the next try but eviscerated the defence in a 60 metre about-face. An attacking scrum for the blue-and-whites suddenly became a scramble for defence after the ball was lost in contact. The visitors reacted quickly and were able to find the gaps in a still-adjusting home team to rapidly move the ball upfield and cross the line. The conversion was successful and the gap was closed to 29-19.

However, the next, and final, score would belong to the blue-and-whites. Ironically, it started much the same way with a knock on from the visitors being secured by the home pack. A few phases later and Chiappetta had crashed over for his second, and the game’s last. A successful conversion saw the final score read 36-19 and Mansfield through to the next round.

Don’t let the final score fool you, this was a hard fought victory by the home team who were not once allowed to rest on their laurels. Both teams had a point to prove after finishing their seasons on a high and that was evident in the performances. The second half saw the blue-and-whites exploit the pace on the wings much more and it was only outstanding defence by the visitors that stopped another trio of tries being scored. The home team were able to use the possession dominance they had to keep grinding down the visiting defence and that’s ultimately where the difference lay.