Emphatic win to start the season for the U16s

A sunny morning in Harborough greeted a Kettering squad of 30 players for our first game of the season. We were missing a couple of players from last season and welcoming one or two new faces. Good luck to Harvey and get well soon to Conal, and welcome to Archie and Karl.

The game was a friendly and based on three 20 minute thirds to allow all players to get a run out.

Harborough kicked off and forced an early knock on error from Kettering. Most of the early action was confined between the opposing 10 metre lines with the home side enjoying plenty of possession but not able to advance beyond some effective Kettering first up tackling.

Both teams swapped penalties for breakdown offences before the first score arrived after 11 minutes. Cam returned an attacking kick well and from the resulting ruck Jamie picked up and drove into the home defence, the ball was recycled quickly and Ed took the ball on at speed , handing off a defender and making his way to the line for a try in the left corner, which went unconverted. 0-5.

Alex K then made an early entry for blunder of the year when he failed to hold onto a ball that sat up in front of him like a balloon after a kick through - if only we had it on video....! Kettering now started to apply some pressure in the set piece and were forcing Harborough deeper into their own territory. From a poor clearing kick after 19 minutes Haydn took a great catch and fed Cam who hit the line at speed from full back. He made the most of some loose tackling and applied a stout hand off before turning on the gas to go around the last defender and score to the right of the posts, this time converted by Robbie. 0-12.

There was just time for Harborough to win a sharp turnover from a ruck that we took the ball into before the ref blew to end the first third.

The next third saw extensive changes in the Kettering ranks, with Richard gallantly crossing over to prop for Harborough. However despite winning more possession it was noticeable that at times we were tending to overplay our offloading game and trying to find a "Hollywood" pass rather than holding on to possession and waiting for support. The scrum was also a difficult area with both teams struggling to stay upright and several resets were required before play could continue.

At this point dear reader the Pitchero website crashed and dumped the rest of my carefully crafted report.....FFS.......grrrr. So in brief then , as I'm never going to get the last 30 minutes back,we scored some more tries and were generally bossing it as a squad. Thanks to Market Harborough - you never gave an inch even though the scoreboard was going against you.

Tries - Fred, Josh L, Cam x 2, Henri and Ed.

Premiership Directors of Rugby unintentionally offended : 1