What a difference a break makes

With the home side enjoying a fine run of recent form, needing to win to secure their place in the league and the Blues with a serious injury crisis, this was always going to be a huge challenge for a Kettering side which had endured a poor run of results over the previous month.
Things looked ominous for the Blues as Rasen opened the scoring with an unconverted try after 5 minutes. The visitors struck back almost immediately, despite the fact that they had 2 players in the sin-bin, as late call up Luke Conyard beat a number of defenders on a mazy run to level the scores.
Then the Blues lost Josh Watts with a broken leg, but battled on and Ollie Furness kicked a penalty and then added the extras to Conyards second try, as the Blues opened up a 15-5 lead. Back came the home side with a converted try to see the Blues leading 15-12 at the break.
The problems continued to pile up for the Blues, as first David Bannister left the field with concussion and then Alex Bayley followed with a shoulder injury. This meant replacement scrum half, Connor Featherstone had to play at wing forward, and prop, Luis Santos in the second row. To make matters worse, Rasen scored a converted try to lead 19-15, and at this point it looked as though the Blues brave effort would fail.
The players had other ideas and Jordan Butlin scored, with Furness' conversion regaining the lead, and then Conyard he crossed for his hat-trick, converted by Furness to open up a 10 point lead for Kettering. Rasen struck back with a penalty and then the Blues were reduced to 14 as Ben Hanger had to leave the field with a head injury.
With five minutes remains the home side appeared to have secured the win, with a converted try to lead 31-29, only for Furness to regain the lead with a penalty and then, as time ran out, Damien Conyard pounced on a loose clearance to score the decisive try, converted by Furness.
With the last play of the game, Rasen secured a vital 4th try, which gained them 2 vital bonus points, but the plaudits all went to the battling Blues who regained the respect of their travelling band of supporters with a great display of running rugby and courage in the face of real adversity.