Blues lose out at the death again.

The first half belonged to the Blues as they spent much of the first 30 minutes camped in the Bugbrooke 22. Despite this it was 29 minutes before they took the lead as the home side showed great determination to defend, even when reduced to 14 through a yellow card. Eventually the pressure told, the Blues re-cycled the ball a number of times and James Taylor crossed in the right corner for the opening try, which was excellently converted by man of the match, Joe Daniel. 2 minutes later Daniel added to the score with a penalty to open up a 10 point lead. In one of their few excursions into the Blues 22, the home side managed a converted try to somehow only trail 10-7 at the break.

Daniel then extended the Blues lead to 13-7 after 44 minutes, but the home side were now firmly in the game and poor decision making by the Blues at a 22 drop out proved costly and Bugbrooke scored an unconverted try to close the gap to one point on 49 minutes.

Back came Kettering and Matt Nield finished off a fine handling move, which had a suspicion of a forward pass in it, with Daniel converting, before the home side again responded with a try, and then took the lead for the first time on 68 minutes with a converted try of their own. The Blues, again, came back and this time Simon Bartley scored from a catch and drive lineout on 70 minutes, with the impressive Daniel again converting, only for Bugbrooke to re-take the lead on 75 minutes with another try. Then, with minutes remaining Daniel kicked a penalty from the halfway line to give the Blues a 30-29 lead, which they held until the 5th minute of injury time, when once again, poor decision making, this time at a lineout gave the home side the chance to grab the win, which they gleefully did, as a wheeled scrum 5-metres from the Blues line saw their scrum half Tom Wood score his third try of the day and with the conversion added, the joyous home side and supporters celebrated a fine, if not wholly deserved win.

This game was a great advert for rugby at this level, with both sides playing with passion, desire and no shortage of skill, whilst never once crossing the boundaries of fair play and sportsmanship. Despite the loss, the Blues players and coaches all enjoyed the game and look forward to their next encounter with a like minded rugby playing side. As one player commented "these are the type of games that we train and play the game for, even if the enjoyment is slightly tainted by losing out at the death".

RAJ Man of the Match - Joe Daniel