Kettering v Northampton Men's Own

Kettering travelled to Northampton Men's Own with only 14 men, but thankfully the hosts were able to provide their only spare player for the first 20 minutes until an injury meant he was needed back.

Straight from the kick-off it looked like this was going to be a tough day... A couple of missed tackles and Men's Own were through under the posts for a converted try in the second minute.
This seemed to give Kettering the wake up call they needed and a great run by Dave against his own team set up Damien Adcock to open the Kettering scoring on 3 minutes. From the kick-off Kettering went straight on the attack and when Men's Own infringed 10m from their own line Tony Williams took a quick tap and charged through the forwards to score. Three more tries quickly followed for Andy Davey, James MacPherson and Kieran Wilson following good work from Tom Dickinson, Dave and Adcock. A charged down kick led to Sam O'Flaherty scoring his first try, a few minutes later Ben Ling broke through to send MacPherson over for his second and then O'Flaherty spotted a gap in the defensive to run in from 40m. Adcock profited from another break by Ling to bag his second try, before Men's Own started to take control for the last 7 minutes of the half but Kettering's defence stood strong to keep them out.

Half Time Score: Northampton Men's Own 7 - 53 Kettering

Straight from the kick-off Rob Tilley made a break to send MacPherson through, who then offloaded back to Tilley to score under the posts. A couple of minutes later Ling made another break to send Tilley over for his second. Kettering then stacked the left from a scrum and Adcock broke down the right and despite his desperate attempts to offload and avoid his hat-trick he went over in the corner, (attempted jug avoidance of the year award!). At this point Men's Own were obviously deflated, but agreed to continue for another 10 minutes. Kettering didn't let up and ran 3 more tries... Wilson made a good break to score under the posts, then Davey went over after a break from Adcock and finally Ling got his reward after countless assists throughout the game to score with the final play.

Full Time Score: Northampton Men's Own 7 - 89 Kettering

Big performance from all the guys to step up despite the limited numbers! The scrum and line-out were fantastic and set the platform for the backs to run in the tries, simple rugby at it's best!