Kesteven U13s vs. Oakham

This bonus fixture was added at the last minute, meaning K's didn't quite have everyone available. On a sunny, breezy morning on a hard, dry Pitch 1, today's referee Coach Simon blew the whistle to get the game underway.

First Half
Playing downhill and with the wind behind, K’s kicked off the match and applied early pressure, but it was Oakham who opened the scoring. From a penalty in their own 22, Oakham kicked clear and recovered the kick to race upfield, 0-5. K's responded quickly with a delayed pass from Wyatt setting up Ollie T to score, 5-5.

Behind the pack, Alfred was recycling the ball quickly, setting up a strong run from Tom McD who was brought down near the line. From the ruck, Callum picked up and touched down from close range to take the score to 5-10.

Oakham then broke free again with some missed tackles from K's and only a heroic tackle from Ollie M prevented them from levelling the score.

After multiple phases, Tom McD then powered through the Oakham defence to extend the lead to 5-15. K's began applying the pressure and deep in the Oakham 22, Alfred kicked through for Wyatt to touch down in the last play of the half, which ended 5-20.

Second Half
Joe D caught the kick-off handing K's possession. The ball was shipped across the backs and Wyatt's break was stopped by a great tackle from the full-back. From the next phase, a switch set up Oscar for a strong run and try, 5-25.

Oakham responded with their second try and began to apply pressure, exploiting the wind and the slope. Another great tackle from Ollie Martin in the corner prevented a certain try. K's then missed several tackles, enabling Oakham to close the gap with another try, 15-25.

K's pushed back up the field and Ollie T ran round from the blindside to set up a lovely try. Ollie T spun the ball along the line, nice delays from both Alfred and Oscar drew their men and set up Dan to maraud up the wing and score what Oakham coaches described as the best try they'd seen all season, 15-30.

K's came under pressure again and some questionable kicking, poor chasing and missed tackles resulted in a fourth try for Oakham, taking the final score to 20-30.

Post Match
MOTM was Ollie Martin, who stood out for 2 try-saving tackles - which ultimately was the difference between the two teams.

Updated Season Stats
A total of 23 different players scored tries for K's this season (24 if you include 'Penalty Try' and 25 if you include Laurence's controversially disallowed try against the clothes-liners!!).

The boys finished with 16 wins and just 4 defeats, scoring a total of 181 tries in 20 games, with a total points haul of 905, conceding just 345 to give a points difference of 560!

These are incredible statistics and the whole squad should be very proud! Well done U13s! On to U14s where we'll play the full 15s game for the first time.