KETTERING 3 - 25 LUTON 

Kettering succumbed to another defeat against promotion play-off chasing Luton, with a display full of determination and commitment, but lacking the pace and experience which their opponents had in abundance, particularly in the back 3.

The scoreline, however, in no way reflects the closeness of this encounter, as for most of the game the Blues gave as good as they got, but Luton finished off their chances whilst Kettering failed to capitalize on the opportunities which they created with some fine play.

The game began badly for the Blues, as, not for the first time this season, they were caught napping at a penalty, and Luton needed no second invitation to cross for the simplest of unconverted tries. The Blues then missed a relatively simple penalty, before Luton stretched their lead with a very controversial unconverted score, when a Luton player quite clearly lost the ball going for the line, but the referee stunned the Blues players and the crowd by awarding the try.

10 points down the Blues fought back, and Bruce Keir kicked a penalty to reduce the arrears, but then both defences held firm, as opportunities came and went, with the game swinging from end to end. Kettering’s cause was not helped by some very poor kicking out of hand, which gave the Luton wings and full-back ample space to make decisive breaks. To their credit the Blues scramble defence was excellent and the score-line stayed the same until the break.

In the second half the blues dominated much of the territory, but once again failed to break through a stern Luton defence, and as the half wore on, the Kettering attacks became more frantic and less considered, which made life easier for Luton to repel. During this time, the visitors also stretched their lead to 2 scores with a penalty. Then with 20 minutes remaining Luton broke away and scored another unconverted try to finally kill off any chance of a Blues revival. Then, with the very last play of the game, an excellent cross-field kick saw the Luton right wing score his second try of the game, to not only make the score-line even more unkind to the Blues, but also secure the bonus point for the visitors.

There were, however, some excellent performances from the Blues players, with special mention to late replacements, Michael Griffiths, who played his first rugby for over 2 months, when both Terry Pell and Josh Watts withdrew through injury late on Friday, and Paul Sumner, who also received a late call up for the injured Corey Rainbow. Ryan James was back to his belligerent best, whilst Dan Ireland worked tirelessly at wing forward, and Josh Block was once again everywhere, despite playing at the less familiar position of scrum-half.

Things get no easier for the Blues, as this weekend they travel to runaway league leaders, Ampthill, in a game which doubles up as a league and East Midlands Cup match, as teams begin to try to fit in matches lost during the recent winter weather.