Kettering RFC 5 - 24 Sheffield RUFC

Kettering RFC 5 - 24 Sheffield RUFC

Team Selection for Saturday 1st February 2020

15 Andy Hodgson
14 Nick Marshall
513 Lewis Bowman
12 Jamie Flint
11 Sion Cowdy
10 Ben Parker
9 Steve Depledge

1 Ben Whitney
2 Angus Hughes
3 Jake Hicklin
4 Dom Parsons
5 Dave Clayden
6 Tom Womack
7 Matt Adcock
8 Alex Fawdry
Replacements:-
16 Ianto Jones
17 Jason Hignell
18 Kai Ramrattan

Sheffield travelled to Kettering who despite being well beaten in the reverse fixture in October, were a much tougher opposition than the score on that day indicated and Sheffield new that the match at Kettering was going be no walkover. Sheffield were travel without prop-forward, Joe Cooke and number 8, Sean Casey who moved over to the injury list to join flyhalf Will Hodgson who was injured at Burton. Alex Fawdry moved from blindside flanker to number 8 and Hake Hicklin moved up to tight-head prop from the bench. Matt Adcock returned at open-side flanker, with Angus Hughes and Tom Womack also moving into the pack from the bench with Ianto Jones moving in the opposite direction. Finally, Andy Hodgson returned to the squad at full back with Kai Ramrattan dropping to the bench. George Castledine remained with Rotherham RUFC.

Sheffield got off to a very lively start and were immediately pressuring the Kettering defence with all the action being inside Kettering’s 22-metre zone and were on the scoreboard after just three minutes with right wing Nick Marshall finding his way to the try line and under the posts. Steve Depledge took on the kicking duties in the absence of Will Hodgson and George Castledine and converted to give Sheffield a 7 point to nil lead. Sheffield continued to dominate the action, but a series of errors, and not a few too many penalties prevented the dominance leading to any further score. However, with some thirty minutes gone, Kettering suffered the loss of outside centre, Harry Owens to a yellow card for preventing release of the ball at the breakdown, but the effect was to spur Kettering on and with the first half in overtime, they were able to score a try wide out on the right through second row Harry Simmonds. Full back Joe Daniel was unable to convert and the half closed with Sheffield leading by 7 points to 5.

The second half saw Kettering with no less commitment to the cause and Sheffield had at times to defend with some intensity. However, it was Sheffield who were to get the next score when a series of penalties led to a Sheffield lineout on Kettering’s 22-metre line. Having secured the ball, Sheffield set up a driving maul at which Kettering erred again and with the referee playing advantage the ball went to the back with full back Andy Hodgson slipping into the line to score wide out on the left. The conversion was missed, but Sheffield led by 12 points to 5 after forty-eight minutes. Sheffield’s third try came from an element of pressure and just a little luck. Kettering had a scrum fairly central and just outside their 22-metre, the ball went back for a clearance kick, but the kick was delayed and Jamie Flint managed to charge down the kick, collect the ball and go on to score, again out on the left. The conversion was missed again, but with fifty-seven minutes gone, Sheffield led by 17 points to 5.

Kettering came back hard at Sheffield and just four minutes later with Kettering battering on the Sheffield try line, Sion Cowdy was sent to the sin bin for what the referee declared was a deliberate knock-on. Kettering continued to bang on the door, but Sheffield held firm despite the baying of the crowd to award them a penalty try. They were however, awarded a number of penalties, from which they decided to take the scrums where they had shown some prominence. However, Sheffield defence held firm and after a period taking a battering and the return from the sin bin of Sion, were able to clear their line with a penalty just tern metre from their own line. From the resulting lineout Sheffield found a hole in Kettering’s mid-field defence with replacement hooker breaking several tackles before handing on to Andy Hodgson, and then Matt Adcock before try scorer, Lewis Bowman. Steve Depledge added the conversion to give Sheffield a 24 point to 5 lead with less than 4 minutes to go and the bounce went out of the game and the referee brought proceedings to a conclusion.

Scoring: -