Kesteven topple league leaders Ashbourne

Kesteven were almost back to full strength for the visit of league leaders Ashbourne. Woodnook was bathed in breezy sunshine as Ashbourne kicked off. The early play had Kesteven on the back foot as the heavy visiting pack took control. The home team were defending well but a loose clearance kick failed to find touch and Ashbourne took full advantage by running the ball back and evading tackles to run n for the opening try. The conversion gave the visitors a 7 point lead after 7 minutes.

The home team did not lie down however. They were able to create some pressure with some intelligent kicking by Matt Harland. They worked themselves into the Ashbourne 22 recycling the ball well. Adam Draper collected the ball from a ruck on the 22 but found few options available. He popped a deft kick through to the corner and Keiran Taylor read it well to chase past the startled defence to score. Harland’s conversion hit the post and stayed out. This gave the home team heart and they were able to get into the game playing their usual brand of high speed rugby.

Daniel Turner was finding space and Will Bradley was asking questions of the defence. Ashbourne were becoming frustrated and started to concede a number of penalties. Harland drilled one such award between the sticks to edge the home side into the lead after 30 minutes. It soon got better as a long clearance from the visitors found Taylor on the wing. He moved infield and found Whittaker in support and with room to spare. The young full back used his pace to run clear to score at the posts. Harland converted. This stung Ashbourne and they forced play into the home 22. Kesteven stopped the attack illegally and Ashbourne popped over the resulting penalty to cut the deficit to 5.

The home team again went on the attack and won a further penalty. Harland’s kick hit the post for the second time. The charging Kesteven pack was up quickly and won the ball, moving it well in the backs but they couldn’t find a way through. Will Cann however saw that nothing else was on and dropped a neat goal to make the halftime score 18 – 10.

The second half proved a tighter affair at first. Ashbourne as expected had more territory but the Kesteven defence held up well. The tackling was strong and all they conceded was a penalty to again narrow the gap to 5 points. That was as close as it got. Ashbourne had trouble with their discipline and the referee lost patience sending one of their players to the sin bin for the last ten minutes. This gave Kesteven the impetus to go for broke and they found more space as Turner got into his stride. Twice he was stopped short. Whittaker was pulled back for a forward pass. Cann added a penalty to take the game 2 scores away from Ashbourne. The physicality of the game was taking its toll as first Sayle then Webster left the field. Pert came on for Webster while James Goodrich came on to play the last 10 minuts in the back row. He was influential in providing the scoring pass for Bradley to score after an exhilarating bout of quick handling. Cann’s conversion was charged down.

Kesteven attacked straight from the restart taking play back into the Ashbourne half. The visitors weren’t able to deal with the pressure and shortly after Cann was able to release Bradley who neatly chipped over the full back to gather at pace and race in for his second try in as many minutes. This gained an impressive bonus point win and the conversion from Cann made the final score 33 – 13 to Kesteven. Bradley was justly judged man of the match. The win moves Kesteven up to 7th in the league.

This was a fine performance by Kesteven, giving much needed confidence after recent weeks. The pack was very mobile with fine performances by Daniel Turner, Martin Carew and Mark Sayle (Jnr). Tony Woolerton played with his usual power while captain Tom Webster led by example. The front row of Rob Sheardown, Doug Hayward and James Cowley gave as good as they got against a very experienced opposition. In the backs Adam Draper, in his first match at scrum half, got the backs moving well while he varied his game intelligently. The kick for Kieran Taylor’s try was beautifully judged. Matt Harland kicked well while in the threequarters Will Cann and Will Bradley gelled well. Kieran Taylor took his try well while Alex Ingram improves with every game and Whittaker was magical in his running, especially with his try.

Next week the team travel to Derbyshire to play Bakewell with renewed confidence.

Team was A Whittaker; K Taylor, W Bradley, W Cann, A Ingram; M Harland, A Draper; R Sheardown, D Hayward, J Cowley, M Sayle, M Carew, T Webster, T Woolerton, D Turner Replacements W Pert, J Goodrich, G Purvis.