Kettering U14s welcomed St. Neots for the first time at Waverley Road in the opening round of the East Midlands Cup. It was also the Blues first home game of the season and an opportunity to show off their new TXM Recruit match tops.

After the dark clouds of Saturday night and England's departure from the World Cup, blue sky and bright sunshine greeted all. The conditions should allow some expansive rugby to be the order of the day.

Kettering took the opening kick deep into the visitors 22, who decided to allow the ball to bounce rather than opt for the catch. The Blues however came up so fast, St Neot's found themselves instantly on the back foot. Tom Lane and Joe Steel combining to secure the ball before the pass to Henri Codling who crashed over the line to open the score in the first move of the game. Kettering 5-0.

The returning St Neot's kick was caught well and some scintillating inter play and off loads between the backs and forwards saw the Blues win a scrum in front of the posts. Kettering secured the scrum ball and Tom Church drew the cover defence before sending Joe Steel through the gap and under the posts. Conversion by Tommy Sims. Kettering 12-0.

A well caught kick deep in the Kettering 22 saw Joe Steel take on the advancing St. Neots back line at pace, breaking the first tackle, handing off the next 2 and a race down the touchline between Joe and the visitors full back put Kettering in for a third try in the corner. Kettering 17-0.

St.Neots continued to struggle with the pace and offloading game of the Blues, with further tries from James Smith, Joe Steel , Cale Clements and Tommy Sims. A conversion each for Adam Mclean and Tommy Sims found Kettering in a commanding lead of 41-0 at half time.

The Blues made a number of changes at half time, but the pace of the Blues attack did not relent. The forwards continued to break the gain line, allowing the backs time and space to move the ball wide, where only some unlucky handling errors saved St.Neots.

The visitors' however continued to probe the Blues defence but breached it just the once, only to be chased down by Theo Boreham and bundled into touch.

The Blues relentless forward pace ultimately proved too much for a tiring St.Neots with Will Watters crashing over from close range and a further try from Henri Codling backed up by Will Watters whose driving maul took the final score to Kettering 51-0.

Whilst the score shows a strong win for Kettering, St Neots kept their heads up, competed at the scrum and tackled for all their worth and played as a team. With only 15 players on the day it was always going to be an uphill struggle for them but they should be commended on their fighting spirit.

Kettering took many positives from the morning, with numerous players contending for TXM Recruit player of the week. Henri Codling ultimately took the award for an outstanding game in the loose and a number of key turn over balls....he'd obviously been watching Australia the night before closely!