Powergen Midlands 2 East

Melton Mowbray 12   Kettering 32      

‘Blues win away at the Piemen!’

Kettering stormed to victory in the final quarter of this Midland 2 East clash, at Melton Mowbray, after a very even first period had given the travelling supporters some concerns.

Kettering’s cause was not helped when firstly David Styles withdrew in the morning through illness, to be replaced by Steve Kelly, and then Tom Coles broke down in the warm up, with a recurrence of his thigh injury, which left the visitors one short on the bench as replacement back Stephen Duncan had to start the game.

The home side quite clearly wanted to stifle Kettering expansive style of play, as they moved the game to the smallest pitch available, which was also suffering from the persistent rain of the previous week.

Early pressure from the home side came to nothing, and then after 5 minutes a poor kick out of defence was fielded by Paul Gibson, and then after a couple of phases Tom Bridgeman’s pinpoint cross-field kick was caught by Nathan Satala and his inside pass to Chris Davis resulted in the first, unconverted, Kettering try.

Melton responded almost immediately, with an all too easy try of their own to level the scores. Good driving by the forwards, and a great angled run from Rory Keir set up a good attacking position, and then Tom Bridgeman broke down the blind side to slip between 2 defenders and score wide out on the right.

Melton scored a converted try almost immediately from the kick off to take the lead for the only time in the game, and then in the 35th minute a Melton attack broke down, and Nathan Satala showed great footballing skills and pace to kick and chase the ball 70 metres to score a try which Tim Jones converted to give the visitors a 17-12 half-time lead.

Kettering took control of the game in the 2nd half, and the introduction of Kev Osborne and later skipper Ryan James gave some much needed forward momentum, although it took 30 minutes for them to settle their nerves, as firstly Steve Freeman charged over from a 5-metre lineout, then the combination of No.8 James and, scrum half, Tom McGoldrick, sent Bridgeman clear for a 30 metre run down the left wing for his second try. With time running out and the home side by now well beaten, Paul Gibson broke through the centre from within his own 22, ran around the full back and stormed over for a great solo score, to seal the victory.

With other results going their way, Kettering move into 2nd place in the table on points difference, and one point behind new league leaders Hinckley.

Other Matches

KETTERING 2nds 24 LUTON 2nds 20

The 2nd XV, consolidated their position at the top of the Wells Bombardier Merit table, with a great win over National 3 South side Luton’s 2nd string. Tries from David Haig, Martin Cheatham, both returning from injury and illness respectively, and Will Newman, with all three converted by the ever reliable boot of George Chudley, who also added a penalty to his points tally, to secure the points in a closely contested game, which the home side feel they should have had won long before the end of the match.

KETTERING COLTS 11 TOWCESTER COLTS 13

Kettering Colts suffered their first league defeat of the season at the hands of Towcester Colts, at Waverley Road. The visitors scored first with an unconverted try from their forward pack. Kettering responded with a try from James Taylor, following a well worked move from the back of the scrum. With conversion missed the scores remained level until Bruce Keir kicked a penalty for the home side, but Towcester took a slender 10-8 lead into the half-time break, when they scored a second unconverted try following a clever cross-field kick.

The second half was an even tighter affair and Keir gave the home side the chance to win the game with a second penalty, but the visitors refused to concede defeat and were rewarded with the match winning try in the final few minutes. This defeat means that Kettering must win their final league game away at St. Ives to secure a play-off place in the East Midlands Colts Championships.

The 3rds, 5ths and Vets games were all casualties of the recent weather!

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