Match Report

Kesteven Travelled to Ashby to see who would end up second in the league table at the end of the day. Four changes to team from the previous game led to Richard Armstrong, Olly Wood, Aaron Whittaker and Ash Osbourne all being unavailable. Coming into the team were, Adam Draper, James Cowley, David Tweddle and Tony Woolerton . The conditions were very cold (snow made its first appearance of the season) and little windy! The Pitch however looked in good shape and played well.

After a short warm up to avoid the cold for a prolonged period of time, the team got on with what they thought would be a closely fought game. The home side came out of the blocks strongly showing that they had a good strong forward pack that was capable of keeping the ball for multiple phases time after time. Kesteven’s defence held up well, giving Ashby no line breaks or opportunities. The Referee however was very hot on his offside rulings and found Kesteven to be at fault a couple of times in the opening five minutes. One was converted with the other missed.

Kesteven started to settle into the game when they started to get their hands on the ball. Holes were becoming apparent through the middle for the centres and also out wide when the opposition defence bit in too early. But it was through the pack that Kesteven made the most ground, a strong interplay between forwards and backs brought Kesteven up to the Ashby line. Kesteven drove hard twice before Turner got over the line from short range. Parker missed the conversion to make the score 3-5.

With different faces in the Kesteven back three there was a worry that the usual penetration from full back might not be there. These worries for consistently put to bed with the excellence of Adam Draper’s performance standing in at 15. On this occasion on the 20th minute the ball broke loose for Draper, he rounded two men then straightened effectively and put Tweddle and Miles in for a 2V1. Tweddle made no mistake, he’d been working hard on his skills all week and it paid off as he gave a classy pass to give Miles a run in from 30m. This time Berry took the conversion with a rather unconventional style that very nearly made it! But sadly nearly is not enough 3-10.

The home side were not done though, they regathered themselves and came back at Kesteven. Again the defence held firm, but another penalty was conceded which Ashby kicked to make the score 6-10. HT

At the break Kesteven reflected on the fact that they allowed 2 or 3 clear opportunities to score go begging and vowed to be more accurate in the second half. It didn’t start well however as Parker got yellow carded for a high tackle. Parker was a little unlucky as it was a case of mistaken identity, but the pivot took is medicine and departed the scene.

Ashby took heart with K’s down to 14 men and came hard in the face of the Kesteven defence. Kesteven wiped themselves down and regathered their composure. With the sin bin clock drawing to an end Kesteven took play all the way down to the other end of the pitch and orchestrated a fantastic score where forwards Sheardown and Turner opened a hole up in Ashby’s defence to send Turner over for his second try. This was converted to make the score 6-17.

Parker was allowed back onto the pitch and Kesteven made their changes at this point. Davies came on for the injured Tweddle, Phil Jordan went onto the flank in the place of Leo Vincent and Ben Betts replaced the impressive Hughes on the wing.
Kesteven now had a firm grip on the game and felt fully in control. The home side’s attack seemed to lose heart. The forwards redoubled their efforts and took a strong rolling maul from 20m out to score over the line at almost a run. Scott Odams was the man to take the try. The conversion was missed to make the final score 6-22.

Kesteven were extremely happy with how the game went with Ashby rarely threatening a defence that Kesteven had worked hard on over the last few weeks. In attack the whole team showed a high skill set despite leaving a few opportunities out there. K’s now move on to a cup weekend before returning to league fixtures in December.

Kesteven: Odams, Sheardown, Purvis, Tweddle, Cowley, Woolerton, Vincent, Turner, Dent, Parker, Miles, Goodrich, Berry, Hughes, Draper: Betts, Jordan, Davies.