Kesteven U15 Vs Manlock (Mansfield & Matlock)
From the kick off Beth used the wind at her back to land the ball 5 metres out from the Manlock line, some say that ‘ a kick is only as good as the chase’ and in this case it was, Captain Issey bursting through the Manlock players to wrap up the player picking up the ball, she then ripped it from her hands , turned and dived over the line for a quick early score. Great stuff
Kesteven then employed the same tactics against Manlock that had gained them success against the Casuals but this team (with a good number of subs) put up more resistance and the K’s knew that they would have to step up a notch to gain the upper hand. Satisfyingly for all the Kesteven travelling fans the passing game began to really click and Sophie, Hollie, Issey, Skye, Mia, Beth, Ellie Mae and Grace passed the ball around, with speed and accuracy, all played their part and the Manlock defence was soon breached again by Issey.
The speed and pace of the game barely allowed for breath and although the K’s seemed to get on the wrong side of the official, again giving away multiple penalties, everything seemed to be on track with the K’s passing and running game resulting in Grace grabbing a brace of well worked tries before halftime.
The second half began, and the possibly fatigued K’s took their foot off the gas, Manlock spotted the apparent malaise that had developed in the Kesteven defence and attacked. Then by using penalties to gain field position they ran in and scored right under the posts. Not long afterwards this was repeated and something had to be said, that was when last years team captain Lilly May went on and gave some words of encouragement. This seemed to do the trick; Beth found a hole and ran the length of the pitch only to agonisingly get dragged down 2 metres short, but up popped Issey again and another score was in the bag.
Moments later another breakout resulted in a ruck 5 meters out from the Manlock line, number 9 Mia saw the daylight in the defensive line and sniped through for what was a well-deserved try (after her efforts providing quality ball and artfully marshalling the forwards all day). But Manlock were not done, and again pressed the tiring K’s defensive line and frustratingly they again scored in similar fashion to before. But this was to be their last successful foray and from then on it was one way traffic with Hollie Sophie and skye again providing the muscle at ruck time, fittingly it was Captain Issey who capped off a player of the match performance with her last try, powering over defenders as she did so. The ref blew for the end and the K’s were victorious and undefeated for the day, every player had a smile on their face and thoroughly enjoyed a tough test of their metal, overall a great team performance!
Final Score Kesteven 30 Manlock 15 (no conversion kicks)