Kesteven club round up
A couple of late call ups to the 1sts led to late changes for the 2s. They got off to a great start with 2 tries in the first three minutes. The first came from Tyrone Miles who went over from a tap penalty then Jonny Korcz caught the restart, fed Richard Midgely and was there to take a return pass to go over at the posts. Matt Harland kicked both conversions to give the home team an early 14-point lead. K's first half performance was relentless with forwards and backs combining well for a procession of tries. Charles and Harland were next to score before Miles Korcz Cooper (2) Mount and Lidstone went over before the break. Harland added 3 more conversions to make the half time score 60 - 0.
K's made changes at the break with Brown Camm and Price replacing Miles Midgely and Oakes. It took the home side a while to settle back into there rhythm as everyone seemed to want to be the next scorer, when simple rugby would have brought more benefit. The next try came from a bizarre move as Worksop kicked for touch and as the ball bounced short of the touchline Rob Cooper picked up the bouncing ball and raced in at the corner. This settled the team and they added a good try from Rob Camm who finished off a good move involving forwards and backs. K's brought on heir final two subs with Templeton and Burton coming on for Charles and Cooper. Templeton made an immediate impact by scoring within a minute of coming on and Andy Price finished off the day by running in two long-range tries in the final minutes.
It is fair to say that this was not K's hardest match of the season and their first half performance was a fine display of total rugby. It was good to see Mark Dent return from injury and there were fine performances from Jason Lamb who kept the backs moving well, while the rest of the team responded well to Oakes's promptings at scrum half in the first half and from the touchline in the second. They now face Notts Moderns in what will be a title decider at Woodnook on Saturday.
Team was F Lidstone; I Charles, R Cooper, M Dent, M arland; J Lamb, S Oakes; G Purves, J Hamilton, P Shields, T Miles, P Mount, J Korcz, R Midgely, A Pearsey Subs A Brown, T Burton, R Camm, S Templeton, A Price
Saturday 10th April
Notts Penant Group 5
Nottingham Boots Corsairs 2nd XV 20 - Kesteven 3rd XV 33
A warm and sunny Saturday saw Kesteven 3rds travel to Nottingham Boots Corsairs for this Pennant 5 league match. With a mixture of youth and maturity, including the Davies father and son combination, Kesteven fielded a promising team headed by stand in Captain Keiran Arnold.
With Kesteven kicking off the match got underway. For the first fifteen minutes the match was played between the 22m lines but Kesteven’s pack slowly began gain the advantage in the scrum forcing play into the Corsairs half. The home side nether the less managed to produce some dangerous breaks. Kesteven were first break the deadlock, Ian MacAllister broke from the scrum finding a gap in the Corsairs back line, passing to Aaron Whittaker who went over in the corner for the try. Daz Blackley then slotted over the conversion. From the restart Kesteven looked to build upon their lead but a series of penalties handed the advantage to Corsairs. Kesteven found themselves on the defensive and Corsairs were able to crash over to score. With the conversion missed Kesteven still held the lead. Kesteven managed to refocus and forced play back into the Corsairs half and in an almost copy of the first try Ian MacAllister broke from the scrum again putting Daz Blackley through to score. Blackley then calmly converted his own try. With no further tries the half ended with Kesteven in the driving seat.
Halftime Score
Notts Boots Corsairs 5 Kesteven 14
Making full use of replacements allowed Kesteven to bring on Dolan, Williams and Wilcox for Davies D, North and Cunningham (incidentally the combined age of the front row was brought below 150 years when Dolan came on as replacement hooker).
Corsairs came out ‘all guns blazing’ at the beginning of the second half and Kesteven were forced to defend. Yet again penalties at the breakdown cost Kesteven both territory and possession. Given possession the home side made use of their backline to stretch the Kesteven defence and finally crashed over to score. Again the conversion was missed. From the restart Kesteven again found themselves on the back foot and were unable to deny Corsairs possession. Kesteven had not adapted to the referee and continued to concede penalties. This was then compounded when Captain Keiran Arnold received a yellow card (and 10 mins in the Sin bin) for preventing Corsairs from taking a quick penalty 5m out. The folly of this action was demonstrated when Corsairs crossed in the corner from the following penalty but crucially missed the conversion.
Finding themselves behind seemed to snap Kesteven out of their malaise and the game now moved into the Corsairs half. Now playing to their full potential Kesteven were able to force the home side to concede penalties, young Frankie Davies gaining valuable metres with several strong drives. It was another young Kesteven player who scored next, when Justin Dingley found a gap in the Corsairs line putting the visitors back in front. This time Blackley’s conversion drifted just wide. Having served his penance Arnold returned to bring Kesteven up to full strength. As the match entered its final quarter the game was finely balanced. Corsairs retook the lead by a single point when shortly after the restart they took a quick 22m dropout catching the Kesteven defence with their guard down. With tension mounting the game entered its final 10 minutes. Kesteven put the home side under pressure and winger Dean Ward was able to follow up his own fly hack and collect the ball to score. Blackley converted again as Kesteven pulled ahead. Kesteven looked to be finishing the stronger of the two teams and were rewarded for their endeavour with a penalty in front of the posts offering a chance to put the game out of reach, however the kick drifted agonisingly wide. Knowing a converted try would win the game Corsairs desperately tried to pressure the Kesteven back line. Kicking ahead Corsairs held high hopes of turning over the ball with four attacking players facing winger Danny Williams, Williams calmly collected the ball and then with blistering pace left the Corsairs players in this wake as he ran from 40m to between the posts for the game’s final try. Blackley’s conversion was the final act of the games as Kesteven celebrated a hard fought win.
[size=18]Final Score
Nottingham Boots Corsairs 2nd XV 20 - Kesteven 3rd XV 33
Kesteven
Arnold (Capt), Davies D, Smith, Clarke M, Davies F, MacAllister, White, Cunningham, Whittaker, Dingley, North, Orm, Willers, Ward, Blackley (Reps) Dolan P, Wilcox, Williams
