BLUES ARE VICTORIOUS IN THE MILTON KEYNES U17'S 10ASIDE TOURNAMENT

This week saw the Blues travel to Milton Keynes to compete in a 10’s tournament. The squad consisted of 12 U16’s and 4 U17’s players.

Squad: Sammy Ismail, Andy Mason, Alex Bailey, Alfie Ayears, Alistair Auld, Gabriel York, Ethan Haywood, Luke Conyard, Josh Beal, Eoghan Doherty, Harry Luthayi, Keiran Wilson, Haydn McCann, Justin Morris, Tom Connolly and Jordan Goldsmith.

Our first opponents were Milton Keynes, once we had woken up we made very light work of them. Harry Luthayi put on his dancing feet and turned the opposition inside out, Harry scored two tries and converted two. Tom Connolly showed great strength and ran in two more tries and Keiran Wilson also ran in a superb try from deep. The final score was Kettering 29 Milton Keynes 0.

Next up was Stockwood Park, these were a very sizeable opposition. The Blues set to work and shipped the ball out wide and used the space. Stockwood couldn’t live with our pace. This game was all about keeping the ball alive and outpacing the opposition. Tries came from Harry Luthayi, Justin Morris, Alex Bailey, Ethan Haywood, Eoghan Doherty and Luke Conyard scored 4. The final score was Kettering 48 Stockwood 5.

The tournament then split into Cup, Plate and Shield and Kettering were then in the Semi Final of the Cup competition.

Our opposition were Aylesbury A. This game proved to be our toughest of the day so far. The Blues stuck to their strategy and kept the ball in hand. We were 14 point to 12 up at half time, with tries from Luke Conyard and Tom Connolly. Aylesbury came back at us with a quick ball out to a pacey winger and score a try but no conversion. The Blues worked hard and repeatedly put pressure on Aylesbury and eventually it paid off with a superb try scored by Harry Luthayi.

The final was against Peterborough who looked very good. Again the Blues stuck to the game plan, although Peterborough were intent on spoiling that. Both teams were playing good heads up rugby. Kettering had a scrum on their 10 metre line, the ball came out the back of the scrum and Ethan “The Whippet” Haywood sprinted and dived over the line before Peterborough knew what had happened. The Blues kept on working and moving the ball and Gabriel York showed his Usain Bolt skills to sprint from half way to go over the line. Half time score was 10 – 0. We knew that Peterborough were not going to take this lying down and again they came back at us, with heavy legs and a couple of missed tackles from Kettering Peterborough went over the line. Kettering dug in and defended their socks off which forced errors. The final whistle went and the score was Kettering 10 Peterborough 5.

This was a brilliant team effort from all. Well done lads, thoroughly deserved. Not only did we win the Cup and £200 prize money, Harry Luthayi was selected by the referees as the Player of the Tournament.