The game began with the unfortunate Chester Hilson injuring his ankle and having to leave the field after 30 seconds. Worse was to follow for the Blues, as a turnover saw ON's open the scoring with an uncoverted try. 0-5.
Indeed the first 15 minutes belonged to the visitors and it took a while for the much changed Blues side to gel together. However, on 20 minutes, skipper George Newman crashed over and with Josh Plowright adding the extra's the Blues took the lead, 7-5.
Soon after, a fine handling move involving several players and numerous offloads, saw Tom Bridgeman feed Aaron Kelman for the flanker the crash through a couple of would be tacklers to score an unconverted try on 25 minutes. 12-5
Back came ON's and they soon closed the gap with a second uncoverted try to make the scoreline 12-10 with 10 minutes of the half to go. At this point it was anyone's game, and the half-time whistle blew with little between the sides. H/T 12-10
The early exchanges in the second half gave little away of what was to come as both sides looked to take control. It was the blues who broke the deadlock after 20 minutes when Tom Bridgeman put Plowright through a gap and the centre dived over for a try, converted by Ollie Furniss. 19-10. Then Matt Neild crashed over with 15 minutes to go, for an unconverted try. 24-10
The ON's resistence was now broken and PLowright added to their plight with a penalty, before Monty Toseland scored an unconverted try with 10 minutes remaining to extend the Blues lead to 32-10.
The Blues saved the best until last, when a lovely break and offload from Shane Ling put Plowright away. The centre had plenty to do from 45-metres out, but he was equal to the task as he danced through the defence to score the final try, which he duly converted himself.
Final score: Kettering 39 - 10 ON's
RAJ Man of the Match: Josh Plowright