Kettering stormed to the top of the table with a comprehensive win over 3rd placed Syston, at Waverley Road. The game was played in glorious sunshine, but with a very strong wind blowing across the pitch which made life difficult for both kickers and hookers at the lineout.

 

The first minutes belonged to Syston as they pinned the Blues back in their 22 from the kick off. However, the home defence held firm and soon Kettering's willingness to throw the ball around began to cause problems for the Syston defence, which had the best record in the division, away from home.

 

However, it was the visitors who opened the scoring when a missed tackle in mid-field, saw the ever dangerous Syston full back, burst clear chip full back Tim Jones collect his kick and score, for a fine individual try, which was converted to give the Leicester side a 7-0 lead.

 

The Blues, however, have great belief in themselves now, and again began to dominate much of the game, apart from the scrum, where they were under pressure all afternoon, and the early lineout where they were struggling with the windy conditions. Around the park, though, their aggressive defence and work rate saw them turn over much of Systons ball, and then using the width of the field they, constantly, stretched the visiting defence. From one of these moves, winger Paul Sumner showed great footwork, speed and strength to round his opposite number, hand off the attempted tackle and sprint 30 metres down the touchline to score the Blues opening try.

 

How Kettering then failed to score again in the first half, says much for the Syston defence, and also highlighted a weakness in the Kettering game, where they, sometimes, get themselves into great positions, create the opportunity, but then fail to finish it off. In one of these near misses, fly half Tom Bridgeman was badly injured and had to leave the field to be replaced by Darren Etheridge. The home side then had a chance to take the lead with a penalty, but chose to kick to the corner. The resultant lineout came to nothing and the score remained 7-5 to Syston at the break.

 

The 2nd half began with Kettering once again in the ascendancy, and it wasn't long before man of the match, Paul Gibson, charged through the Syston mid-field and off-loaded to the supporting Etheridge who scored under the posts, to make Jones' conversion a simple task.

 

With David Styles making great use of the wind, the Blues spent much of the rest of the game in the Syston half, and when Gibson again smashed his way through the visiting defence for a try of his own, which Jones converted, the outcome appeared to have been decided. This proved to be the case as firstly Rory Keir dived over in the corner, following some great hands, and then the ever dangerous Nathan Satala went on one of his frequent mazy runs, which resulted in the centre diving over in the corner following a dazzling 50-metre run. Jones converted the Keir try with a magnificent kick.

 

Despite the scoreline Syston battled back and put the Blues line under immense pressure in the dying minutes, but the defence held firm and Kettering celebrated a tremendous win. With news then coming through that Hinckley had lost at Derby, the home side could also celebrate taking over the top of the league slot with 4 games to go.

 

With still only 5 points separating the top 4 sides, the title and play-off race is far from over, and the Blues know that any slip ups could prove costly, but their destiny is now in their own hands and the next challenge comes away at Old Northamptonians next Saturday, where they know that will receive no favours from their local rivals, who have a battle of their own in their efforts to avoid relegation.