St Neots 34 - 28 Stewarts & Lloyds

Stewarts & Lloyds traveled from Corby with a posative string of results in the early part of the season to face a St Neots side that had been consistently frustrated by the two close defeats in their previous games.

It was Saints who kicked off and the S&L began by trying to use their powerful forwards to take control of the game. They found some small success but it was only a few minutes before St Neots disrupted their attack by firing into the ruck. The ball was quickly moved into the wide channel and Josh Hudson-lett ran 40 meters through several defenders and dropped over the line for home side's first try.

From the kick off, Saints retained the ball after a drop of ill discipline from S&L. They worked hard in their phases trying to draw defenders around the pitch until eagle-eyed scrum half Jack Webb found that the travelling side were neglecting their guards at the ruck and sprinted up the centre of the field. He drew the fullback and gave the ball to prop Kieran Arber who commited the covering defence. Skillfully offloaded out the tackle as the blue support arrived, the ball was popped down the line to flanker Jonathan Wood who made it all the way to the try line. Unfortunately for the Saint, a fantastic piece of last ditch defending spoiled his moment of glory as the ball was knocked out of his hand over the line.

From the resulting goal line drop the teams battled for some consistent possession. Both sides looked positive at moments but Saints fly half Rory Dingemans was aggressive in defence and was driving S&L back towards their line, giving the home team the better edge.

Josh Hudson-lett showed his trademark skills by tearing up the wing, passing several defenders on his way. A hard line from fullback James Larman beat the entire defensive line until he met the fullback covering the deep field, but a simple pop-pass of the ball to Callum Austen in support set him up for a nice run-in try.

S&L tried to settle again from the restart but after a successful tackle was made the temptation to battle back to his feet was just too much and Saints gained the ball back again. Dingermans powered up the wing and crashed into contact. Number 8 Ross Hubbard drew in the covering defence and left a space for hooker Aiden Jordan to run from almost half way under the posts.

The next restart was scrappy and the ball was kicked long. The covering S&L winger slid in to grab it but was dragged out by Larman in a illegal fashion. The reaction of the winger ensured the penalty was reversed and St Neots were back on the attack. Saints forwards carried well but it wasn't long before Dingermans decided to try something special. Chipping over the defenders and catching a bouncing ball to score the 4th and bonus point score for Saint.The away side were determined not go in at half time with 0 on the board so were using their heavy pack to their advantage. After a few attempts eventually the consecutive scrums disjointed the saints defence and they powered over the line.

Saints pushed hard in the second half to swing the momentum back in their favour. They were doing well, making turnovers at the breakdown and forcing errors. It was S&L however who took the next try after they resorted to their trusty pick and go.

Saints were keen to show they were not finished and began a flourish of ground making carries. After stealing a lineout the ball was moved wide and carried forward. The S&L defence were forced to track back and it wasn't long before they were too disjointed to keep up with the St Neots play, leaving Bradley McKenna unmarked in the wide channel for the 5th Saints try of the day.

S&L caught the ball from the resulting kick off and carried well using their usual pick and go method. It was not long before they had another try of their own and the game was close once again. After a competitive 5 minutes of even play saints had a scrum in the attacking half. Aneat pick and pop from 8 to the back line set the pieces for Matthew Peppler-Jones to carved through a gap and draw the fullback. His inch perfect pass looped around the fingertips of a covering defender and McKenna was in for his second shortly before time was called.