Nuneaton 47 Kettering 16

The Nuns put on a six try performance against Kettering to shake off their previous weeks defeat and remain on the heels of the top 3 sides in the league with a convincing 47-16 win on Saturday. Tries from Tom Aherne, Stewart Davies, a Travis Bennett-Allcock brace, Ben Dawes and Ryan Southall plus 15 points from the boot of Lucas Brindley and a final conversion from Max Carter brought in the points.
The pitch and weather were perfect for a game of open rugby and both sides put on a good showing.

The first points of the day came from a Kettering penalty on 9 minutes to lead 0-3. The visitors were enjoying some early pressure but a well drilled defensive effort was holding them at bay.

Both teams were sounding each other out but both defences stood up well. On 17 minutes the Nuns received a penalty and kicked for the corner. With secured ball and then an onrushing maul crossing the try line, Tom Aherne got the ball to ground to give the hosts a lead even without the conversion going over, 5-3.

The Nuns kick off receipt was scrappy and after then conceding a penalty Kettering retook the lead with the kick 5-6 on 20mins.

Straight from the kick off though, the Nuns came back with interest. Kettering caught the ball then kicked it back to full back Stewart Davies who carried the ball forward, chipped over the on rushing defence and then gathered the bouncing ball to score a lovely individual try near the posts. Lucas Brindley added the conversion to retake the lead 12-6 on 21 minutes.

On 27 minutes this lead was extended with a Brindley penalty after the Kettering defence had strayed off side after some more home pressure, 15-6.

With just a few minutes to go until half time, the Nuns crossed for their third try of the day. The Nuns had stretched the home defence but with the line at their mercy a high pass in the low sun went to ground. From the resulting scrum Kettering were under pressure and a clearance kick wasn’t put long. Tak Chawadya returned it across the park before a couple of passes found Travis Bennett-Allcock who skipped and weaved passed a few defenders to score his first try of the afternoon. With Brindley adding the extras the lead was extended to 22-6 after 36 minutes and remained the same up to half time.

Kettering got the first points of the second half when they crossed for a try in the corner after a couple of home penalties allowed them to work up the field. Unconverted the score moved to 22-11 on 44 minutes.

Nuns hit straight back and when the visitors made a mess at kick off time they were caught offside in front of their posts which allowed Brindley to add 3 points from the boot, 25-11 on 47 minutes.

This time it was the hosts who didn’t deal with the kick off. Having conceded a penalty they were put under pressure which allowed Kettering to cross for their second try of the day. Again unconverted but brought the score to 22-16 on 49 minutes.

After a strong set of pressure and having been judged as held up over the line the Nuns added a further penalty to increase the lead to 28-16 on 54 minutes.

The game went into an arm wrestle for the next 15 minutes with the Nuns threatening a number of times but just coming up short.

On 70 minutes the Nuns now hit a purple patch for the last 10 minutes showing good energy, pace and power.

When a penalty kick to touch was missed by Kettering Ryan Southall fed Brindley on half way who in turn popped it back to Southall who went on a weaving run down the touchline and crossed for the bonus point try which Brindley added the extras too, 35-16.

Back came the hosts and after a number of phases of recycled ball moving down the pitch, Ben Dawes went through a whole and then the last defender next to the posts for a try but Brindley struck the post with the conversion, 40-16 on 76 minutes.

The last points came at the end when, from a scrum on half way near touch, the ball was moved across to Bennett-Allcock on the opposite wing. He set off on a trade mark slalom run and after leaving a number of defenders in his wake scored under the posts with Carter adding the conversion to leave the score at 47-16.

A pleased Huw Thomas added “That was a really good performance for 80minutes by everyone today. After the disappointment of last week we bounced back in style and with a few changes to the squad we can see what options we have now which was another positive. First half we worked really hard and then finished off the game well showing good work rate levels to really pull away.”

1 James Redman 2 Toby Dearden 3 Ben Dawes 4 Nick Walton 5 Tom Aherne 6 Adie Hall 7 Todd Bullions 8 Martin Wood 9 Max Carter 10 Lucas Brindley 11 Travis Bennett-Allcock 12 Tom Eales 13 Ryan Preston 14 Takudzwa Chawadya 15 Stewart Davies; 16 Ben Holmes 17 James Lloyd 18 Ryan Southall