Tough Day Away

It certainly was a tough day away at Bedford Ath contested with the usual physicality we've come to expect.
KRFC forwards fronted up well again at scrum time and managed to win the odd one against the head. In the loose the back row put in a particularly strong defensive performance as the Bedford half back pairing continually sought to expose even the smallest of gaps. The line out was the one area were the Bedford forwards had the upper hand with strong jumping causing problems on a number of occasions.
Eventually the Bedford pressure was converted into points via a brace of tries. With good continuity and numerous phases of play the Kettering back line were stretched out wide and faced a 3 on 1 overlap which the home side finished in style with the second try coming via hard straight running lines from the centres.
To KRFC's credit they absorbed the pressure and on a few occasions got into the Bedford 22 however where unable to convert the pressure into points.
At the interval Bedford had a 14 nil lead and a spring in their step.

The second half was played out in a similar vain to the first with Bedford continuing to press hard via their half backs. To Kettering's credit the defensive line speed improved, communication was more effective and the overall intensity was better. Bedford did get across the white wash twice again however Kettering showed good character and stuck to the task. As the game entered the final quarter frustrations began to creep in and unfortunately Kett's suffered two yellow cards to Bedford's one.
Always a tough day being kept scoreless however there was pockets of strong performance from 1-15. The ambition is now to build longer periods of continuity and in particular play heads up rugby at every opportunity.
Bedford awarded the Kettering man of the match to Ollie Furniss who put in a solid performance at 10.