The Blues could not have made a better start as they stretched the home defence time and again, before Joe Newman finally broke through with a deft chip and catch before sprinting over for the first try of the game in the 3rd minute. Joe Daniel converted the try and the visitors were seemingly on their way.

Newark, however, had other ideas and they scored a try of their own 3 minutes later to close the gap and then took the lead at the end of the first quarter with a well struck penalty from James Offer, who had missed a couple of earlier chances as the home side looked to dominate a strangely lethargic Blues pack.

Back came Kettering, and Daniel kicked ahead, chased an almost lost cause and his pressure saw the Newark winger fumble the ball over his own line and Daniel pounced to score the try, which he converted himself.

The rest of the half was scoreless to see the Blues leading 14-8 at the break.

Offer closed the gap with a penalty on 47 minutes, only for Daniel to stretch the lead again with a penalty, before Newman finished off a fine handling move in the 53rd minute, which Daniel converted, to open up a 13 point gap. Then came a turning point, as Ryan Conyard appeared to score a perfectly good try, which the referee deemed to be held up. With the try disallowed Newark hit back and as the game entered the last 10 minutes George Newman was sin-binned leaving the Blues under the cosh and down to 14 for the rest of the game.

With 5 minutes remaining the Newark left wing, who was a threat all game, broke through some weak tackling and scored wide on the left. Worse still, for the Blues, Offer's fine conversion meant that a converted try would win the game for the now rampant hosts. Despite their considerable efforts, Newark were unable to breach the Kettering line and some defiant tackling from the Blues saw them hang on and secure the points from a very hard fought contest.

RAJ Man of the Match: Joe Newman