U15s Bounce Back in a pulsating victory

Kettering U15s travelled down the A14 (and M6) to visit Rugby Lions U15s on a gloriously sunny Remembrance Sunday morning.

Although they have a lovely, modern clubhouse and facilities (how many clubs have their own bank of washing machines and tumble driers??), their refreshment organisation is not a patch on Kettering's!!! Fancy not having bacon rolls ready for all the Dad's/Mum's Taxis..... and some of the mums needed it after their enjoyable day at "Ladies Day"!!

The pitch was a fair hike from the clubhouse which led to some disgruntled parents having to trudge back to the changing room to collect gum shields; scrum caps; body armour etc.

In other news, sources close to the team expressed surprise during the warm up that it was being used as a training exercise for the lineout rather than any warm up exercises. Allegedly, comments were made about the U15s previous experience of slow starts in games after an insufficient warm up period.

Kettering introduced 2 new members to the Headguard Club as Arthur Jones and Chris Gosling, both experts at putting their heads where others fear to tread, sported new attire.

The 2 teams lined up on the half way line and the referee blew his whistle for the impeccably observed 2 minutes silence.

Once the game started, Kettering quickly found themselves on the back foot with the scrum being pushed off the ball time and again. Kettering picked up a loose ball on the half way line but a wild pass out to Dale Sanderson on the left wing ended up with a converted try to Rugby Lions to make it 7-0 to the hosts after 10 minutes.

The next score came against the run of play as Tim Hale picked the ball up just inside the Rugby Lions half and charged through some half-hearted tackling to make the score 7-5. Arthur Jones chose to drop kick conversions during this match and made the score 7-7.

Rugby Lions exerted pressure straight from the restart and scored a converted try after some unusually poor defence by Kettering on their try line - try line defence has become something of a Kettering speciality this season but failed them on this occassion. 14-7 to Rugby Lions after 22 minutes.

With Kettering unable to keep the ball at the scrum they were finding it difficult to provide a platform for Tim Hale and Jake Lewington to stretch their legs. It was from another lost scrum that Rugby Lions barged their way over the line for a try which went unconverted to make it 19-7 after 27 minutes.

Kettering found themselves down to 14 men after the referee produced a yellow card.

This seemed to galvanise Kettering who began to tackle ferociously - Sam Lloyd seemed especially galvanised - and the defence held out for the remainder of the half.

Half time score was 19-7 to Rugby Lions.

At this point, it felt as if another crushing defeat was about to be experienced following the 70-point mauling Kettering got last time out. But the half-time team talk, the yellow card incident and some inspired tinkering with the scrum brought out a different Kettering side for the second half.

Tim Hale moved up to No8 and, with the other positional changes, the scrum started to function properly in the second half. From the first scrum of the half, on the half way line, Tim Hale picked up from the base and made 40 yards setting the ball up for Arthur Jones to score out on the left. With no conversion, the score narrowed to 19-12.

Sam Lloyd continued where he left off in the first half and ripped the ball from Rugby Lions as they sought to exert some pressure. Having won the put in at the scrum, Tim Hale picked up at the base again and this time needed no help as he carved through the Rugby Lions defence, from 50 yards out, to score under the posts. With Arthur Jones converting, the scores were tied at 19-19. The Kettering supporters were going crazy while the Rugby Lions supporters seemed to have lost their voices and there was no sign of the second referee at this point.

Further pressure from Rugby Lions was soaked up and Jake Lewington finally got to show his attacking skills as he picked the ball up on his own 10 metre line and, having spotted acres of space down field, kicked ahead and beat the Rugby Lions full-back to score under the posts. Sadly, tiredness overcame Arthur Jones as he missed the conversion. 24-19 with 7 minutes to play.

Jake Lewington took the ball from the restart and spotted the same space. He chased down his kick ahead and, while being tackled, passed inside to Jack Smith who stormed through but lost the ball in contact with about 5 metres to go to the try line - he also got a boot to the head for good measure although that didn't appear to affect him! Rugby Lions kicked and gave a lineout to Kettering on the 22. Kettering saw out the rest of the match with some good pressure and a dubious tackle at the very end.

All in all, a very creditable victory to Kettering in what was definitely a game of two halves.

Man Of The Match. There were some notable peformances - Chris Gosling doing everything that a full back should do; Arthur Jones ran the game extremely well and came away with a few points; Jack Smith and Joseph Daniel-Wileman both had great games in the pack; and Tim Hale again proved what an outstanding talent he is in attack and defence. However, given the manner of the defeat at Rushden and the fact that Kettering were 19-7 down at half-time, the Man Of The Match award goes to the entire match day squad for manning up and showing a true battling quality to come away with the win. It would have been so easy to have let heads drop at half time.

DotD. Sorry, Arthur Jones, but missing a conversion from in front of the posts has gained you the award this week.