Injury-hit Towcestrians survived a tense finish to seal a 17-12 victory over Newark in Midlands One East.
A fiery game started badly for Tows as late injury problems continued, resulting in Joe Chambers’ recall from the development team’s trip to Olney to play at tight head.
The match started in familiar fashion with Tows’ injury-riddled pack struggling to keep possession so they were forced to put up a dogged defence to protect their line, however the weight of the attack eventually told as Newark fly half Danny Coen crossed under the posts.
He then missed the conversion, was this to prove costly later on in the game?
With limited possession, Tows still looked dangerous through the probing of stand in fly half Mark Yeates. The opportunity then showed itself, Number eight Craig Holton held off tackles in a tight situation on the touch line to release young winger Gus Hopewell to race in. The score remained at 5-5 going into half-time.
After the break, Tows began to stretch the heavier Newark pack across the field gradually wearing them down, prop Chambers deciding to go blind and with overlaps to the sides charged over to score on the line.
This was then followed by captain Liam Wilkinson who bundled over the line under the posts to score a further try. Yuill converted.
Tows now looked completely in control of proceedings, but attacking deep in Newark’s half saw a pass go directly to their winger and captain Chris Tate who sprinted three quarters of the pitch to score.
This was converted by Coen to set up a frantic finish.
Towcestrians IIs went down to a strong performance from Olney IIs.
Peterborough 16 Old Northamptonians 40
Old Northamptonians made light work of Peterborough as they swept to a 40-16 bonus-point victory.
Man-of-the-match Kieron O’Connor shone for the visitors and chipped in with a try in each half.
Lewis Bodily also went over twice, with Alex Rose converting all four and kicking four penalties, including one from 40 metres.
The ONs’ second string also racked up 40 points as they saw off Peterborough IIs 41-17.
The club’s fourth string drew 12-12 with Royal Anglian Regiment in a Help for Heroes charity match.
Northampton BBOB 33 Kenilworth 24
BBOB were edged out of a thrilling Intermediate Cup contest at home to Kenilworth 33-24.
Kenilworth took early control as BB could not cope, with Kenilworth’s right winger a constant danger. The visitors led 14-3 at half-time.
Kenilworth added to their advantage with the try of the game when they moved the ball sweetly between forwards and backs.
BB suffered a further blow when lock Sam Miller was sin-binned and Kenilworth stretched their lead with another converted try.
Kenilworth looked to run everything but came unstuck when a pass was intercepted, resulting in a try for David Abraham.
But back came Kenilworth and their star winger was heavily involved in the team’s next try, which was converted to make it 33-10.
BB fought their way back with converted tries from Tom Shaul and Dan George, but BB had given themselves too much to do.
Mens Own 21 Kesteven 40
A poor start proved costly as Mens Own were knocked out of the Senior Vase after a 40-21 defeat to Kesteven.
Own didn’t get going until the 25th minute after they were already 19-0 down.
Own started to dominate the scrums and the driving play and were worthy of a try, but it was Kesteven who scored again to go in at half-time 26-0 ahead.
That lead increased to 33-0 before Own scored a fine try of their own by Gareth Hughes, converted by Matt Brace to make it 33-7.
Kesteven went over again, but it was Own who finished the better and encouraging play from the backs resulted in tries for Danny Golden and Stuart Brown. Brace converted both.
Old Scouts 33 Earlsdon 22
Tom Powell produced a match-winning performance to inspire Old Scouts to a 31-22 win over Earlsdon in the Intermediate Cup.
Scouts’ other tries in a reasonably comfortable win came from Richard Bussy, Matt Brown and Jordan Dolman.
Scouts introduced another product of their mini/junior section when 18- year-old Joe Martin came on for his senior debut.
Brackley IIs 33 Heathens 26
Heathens travelled to Brackley to take on their second string in a friendly that saw Heathens’ forward dominance just failing to overcome the youthful Brackley back line in a 33-26 defeat.
Heathens got off to a flyer with a try from Tony Hazell.
The visitors managed to starve Brackley of any useful possession until the 20-minute mark when a well-converted try saw Brackley take the lead.
They soon added another seven-pointer until Heathens responded on 36 minutes when another lineout drive put Pete Evans in for a try, well converted by Gavin Cottrell.
The second half saw the game ended as a true rugby match when Brackley were forced to request uncontested scrums which negated the Heathens’ dominance in that area.
This worked in Brackley’s favour and three further tries sealed the win. Heathens scored second-half tries through Daryl Richards and Mark Evans, but the earlier switch proved crucial.
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