Last ten flatters scoreline

In an opening cagey first 10 minutes neither team created any real clear cut chances with both teams defending well.

On 13 minutes Kettering went down to 14 men when prop Daniel Martin went to the sin bin for a late hit on sScouts winger Sam Ewbank. The home side opted to take a shot at 3 points however Adam Frost missed the attempt just pulling it past the left side of the posts. The scouts did take the lead on 21 minutes when sustained pressure by the forwards in the Kettering 22 allowed fullback Dean Lake to pick up the loose ball to go over. Frost added the extras to give the home side a 7 nil lead.

Kettering struck back on 28 minutes when back to back penalties pushed the home side towards there own line and from the resulting line out hooker Stephen Fraher found a small gap in the ruck to go over the line. The conversion was missed with the scouts leading by two.

With half time approaching scouts extended there lead when from a scrum on there own 5m line saw the ball go from left to right and winger George Barrett skated past a number of Kettering players to run from his own 22 to go over. Frost missed the conversion which left the score at 12-5 to the home side.

The visitors came out in the second half firing and levelled the scores within 4 minutes of the restart. Patient play from the forwards led to 5 or 6 phases of play with Matt Nield going over the line. The extras were added by Bruce Keir.

Kettering took the lead on 50 minutes when scouts were penalised for an offside and Keir decided to take the points and slotted over from the scouts 22, to give his side a 12-15 lead.

On 55 minutes the home side had a fantastic chance to go back into the lead when a brilliant break from Liam Hancock saw him charge up the field who offloaded to Luke Reeves to head towards the Kettering line, as he was approaching the line he was stopped by the Kettering winger and still tried to offload to the oncoming Richard Bussey however the pass was too low and was knocked on.

The scores remained the same heading into the final 10 minutes when Kettering exploited a tired looking scouts side when the forwards did the damage once again with George Newman going over, the conversion was added leaving the home side 12-22 behind.

As the home side searched for something on the scoreboard to secure a losing bonus point. The visitors exploited the gaps which were starting to show from a tired looking scouts team. Both teams finished with 14 men as Brett Sturgess and Alex Finney were shown yellows for a late hit and retaliation respectively. The visitors added two further scores firstly through winger Ryan Conyard and then a penalty try in the final minute to give the final score a flattering look as Kettering closed the gap to the top two.

The Scouts will take a lot of positives from the performance despite the loss and will be looking to bounce back as they take on Leighton Buzzard away this Saturday.