S&L 23 Banbury 22

For S&L this was a must win game to maintain any hope of a promotion place, Banbury came to S&L hoping to collect 2 points, after Towcester ended their revival. A late call off saw Milan Crooks taking Simon Parkers place in the front row.

Any thoughts of another 50 points against Banbury were quickly dispelled as Banbury took the game to their hosts, however S&L struck first, the first piece of possession was moved up the blindside to Paul Webster who stood his man up and cut inside for the run to the line. Kirk Lindsay swapped penalties with his opposite number, before Banbury’s quick backs profited from some slack passing, and poor first up tackling, good running from the Banbury centre allowed both wingers to score tries with one conversion.

With a certain 3 points on offer from in front of the posts S&L decided to run the penalty, John Ironmonger powered through the Banbury defence to allow a simple conversion for Lindsay, to tie the game up 15 all. S&L were now struggling to secure scrum ball as they were being pushed back, as Banbury took the initiative, a scrum on S&L 5 metre line was driven over to give Banbury a 7 point lead at the break.

First play of the 2 nd half pushed S&L deep into Banbury’s 22 and allowed Kirk Lindsay to put S&L within 4 points of the lead. S&L scrum settled, and line out started to function better, Owen Davis winning good ball at 2, but poor handling was still a problem for S&L, twice they ran kickable penalties as Banbury’s defence held firm.

As the home crowd saw the game slipping away, a scrum 5 deep into injury time allowed John Ironmonger to pick up and get his pass away Tom Green who tied the game up for S&L by one point, leaving Banbury despondent knowing they should have come away with the points.

Kettering 2 47 S&L2 19

S&L scorers Dave Gilmour 2, Iain Tunnah 1

Alec Morgan 2 con.

S&L 3 26 Well. Ogs 0

Steve Church with his 1 ever try, Ian Hanson 2 Kev Sharpe 1

Gary Mitchell 3 con.