Kesteven, still suffering with a fairly comprehensive injury list never-the-less fielded a very competent side of individuals but with only 4 of the selected 1st team at training on Tuesday and 9 on the Thursday, life as a team that afternoon was always going to be difficult.

Stamford kicked off the game and Kesteven started the first few minutes well. Throughout the game the Stamford side were handling the ball on the floor, coming in from the side, not releasing tackled players, shirt-tugging off the ball and generally spoiling Kesteven’s game. Despite appeals to the match official, he didn’t appear to notice the illegal play and Stamford continually got away with it – it is only illegal if you get caught afterall! Kesteven were once again “too nice” to return the favours to Stamford.

The visiting side were the first to put points on the board. The Kesteven defensive line was very slow to spread across the field from the breakdown and the ball was spread wide by the Stamford attacking line. Several missed tackles allowed one of the Stamford locks to crash over the Kesteven line for an unconverted try in less than 5 minutes.

Stamford picked up two dubious penalties on the 13 and 18 minute marks – the first for Kesteven apparently holding on to the ball in the tackle even though the Stamford tackler didn’t release the Kesteven player. The other was for Kesteven allegedly going straight to ground despite the Kesteven player stepping through the ruck, picking up the ball and then being hauled over the ruck and then held down by a Stamford defender. Both penalties found their way over the post making the score 0-11 to Stamford after 18 minutes.

Now it was K’s turn to add points to the board and from a Kesteven scrum on the Stamford 22m, K's number 8, Martin Carew, picked up from the scrum, passed to Adam Draper who released James Goodrich to dance past several Stamford defenders and touch down on the far-side of the field to close the gap to 5-11.

Stamford ran their attack straight back at Kesteven and it wasn't long before Stamford were awarded another penalty within kicking distance. They slotted the 3 points before managing to secure a further unconverted try after 30 minutes. Once again the Kesteven defensive line was slow to cover the pitch and a clever cross-field kick caught Kesteven short and Stamford raced home for another unconverted try. The score was 5-24 to the visitors at Half Time.

Kesteven had taken much of the first half to gel as a team. The 2nd half saw Kesteven pull together as a side and find their spirit and rhythm. Play was fairly furious for the first 20 minutes with Kesteven spending much of the third quarter in the Stamford half. Daniel Turner came on for Andrew Peabody. Aaron Whitaker, Kieran Taylor, Matt Harland and Doug Hayward all made some good line breaks and gained precious yards for the trailing home side. Sadly, Stamford were to spoil Kesteven’s attempts to close the score deficit on many occasions by once again not releasing tackled players, handling on the floor and other unnoticed misdemeanours. Stamford were forced to clear the lines on several occasions. One such clearance was charged down by Scott Odams and Alex Ingram gathered the ball and touched down for his first try in Kesteven senior rugby - well done Alex!

Kesteven made two more changes in Jake Hughes coming on for Phil Jordan and Matt Ballaam coming on for Richard Midgely but it was Stamford that managed to find their way through a once again disorganised defence to increase their lead to 10-31.

The last 15 minutes of the game saw Kesteven furiously putting together various strings of attacks and keeping play confined to the Stamford half of the pitch. Dan Turner and James Goodrich made several breaks for the home side and K’s were able to gradually move up the field as a team. Once again, as Kesteven got close to the try line, some very dubious turnovers were allowed for Stamford. In the last few minutes of the game, from the back of a ruck, Adam Draper passed to Martin Carew who found his way through a dog legged Stamford defence, shrugging off two tackles to touch down under the posts for Kesteven’s 3rd try which Matt Harland was easily able to convert.

Kesteven stepped up a gear for the last few minutes of the game, desperately requiring a further try to secure a bonus point but it wasn’t to be. Stamford were able to steal the ball from the attacking Kesteven side on their 5m line and the resulting kick to touch brought the game to a close at 17-34 to the visitors. Tony Woolerton and Kieran Taylor were named as Kesteven’s joint Men of the Match. Dick of the day went to Phil Jordan for his late arrival complete with McDonalds takeaway.

Kesteven now find themselves placed 10th in the league, just outside the relegation zone, with 2 more matches against Loughborough and Melbourne remaining to complete the first half of the league. The team were given some much deserved stern words from the coaching team after the game. With the best will in the world, no matter how good the coaching is - if there is no-one at training to coach - the team will not improve.

Kesteven will need to increase the numbers at training over previous weeks to help the Black Army rediscover its passion and confidence as a team to put an end to lack-lustre first halves and having to spend the 2nd half playing catch up. Hoping to see you all at training on Tuesday and Thursday guys.

Team: Scott Odams, Doug Hayward, James Cowley, Mark Sayle (Jnr), Andrew Peabody, Richard Midgely, Tony Woolerton (c), Martin Carew, Adam Draper, Matt Harland, Kieran Taylor, James Goodrich, Alex Ingram, Phil Jordan, Aaron Whitaker; Replacements: Dan Turner, Matthew Ballaam, Jake Hughes

Coaches: Mark Sayle, Mally Turner, Ian Payne
Statistician: Nikki Turner
Photographers: Louise Clark & Gavin Purvis

Sincere thank you to Peter Dolan for arriving to turnout for the 1s if needed.