A bright and windless morning greeted the Blues as they made their way to Mens Own for this friendly match, and with no less than 7 first team players missing through holiday or injury, it was a good opportunity for some of the others to stake a claim and show what they can do.

The game started in in usual style with Kettering gaining ground well inside the Mens Own half and from the 22 Henry Codling showed his class on 4 minutes, with several strong hand offs to go through between the posts, with Tommy Simms converting.

Cale Clements repeated the move scoring beneath the posts after 9 minutes with Tommy once again converting.

Mens Own came back strongly and had the Blues right back on their own line before Tommy Simms sent a long ball out towards the wing and half-way line. As the Mens Own player stood in anticipation of a simple catch Elliot Eghan sprinted through to take the catch and being at full pace, left several Mens Own players desperately trying to catch him, but to no avail, and he ran through to score under the posts, and Tommy converted again.

Cale and Tommy both scored tries which Tommy converted to make the half-time score 35-0 to the Blues.

Mens Own came out strongly after the break and a quick exchange saw them go through to score their first try and let the Blues know that this game was far from a formality.

Tom Lane scored a try after good work by both Henry & Cale, but Tom missed his own conversion.

There was some really good physical exchanges between the two teams as Mens Own were determined to make life difficult but Cale went over again with Tom Lane converting and then Cale smashed through the defence before Henry took it on from the 22 and scored under the posts. Tom Lane hitting the cross bar this time.

A few changes had been made by this time and as legs grew tired Mens Own scored 2 more tries late on to reflect their effort and intent.
Final score 52-28 to the Blues!

Special mentions to Grant for refereeing, Tom Lane playing at 10, Aaron Cole at Scrum half, Jake Surl and Cade Wilder who both put in impressive performances but Man of the Match for his constant running and magnificent try was Elliot Eghan.