Rushden 3's Vs Heathens

Arriving at Rushden and seeing a very youthful side warming up properly made the Heathens side feel like Rushden were already cheating!! The Heathens Side rolled (literally in some cases) out of the changing room still sorting out who was playing where after the Ginger Ninja Medlow had again forgotten to turn up!!! with 14 men on the pitch, step up daddy fantastic Stu to join the fray and make it up to 15. Kick off, well not really as it the young Rushden fly half didn't quite push the ball over the 10m line, tell you what lets just start with a scrum!! From the scrum Young Harry Baxter (playing at 9) sent the ball to McCollin playing at 10 to test the defence, and test he did breaking numerous tackles and passing, yes I said passing to centre Jake Bailey. this set the tone for the game and the 10,12 partnership took it in turns to cause havok in the Rushden defence. the pace of the game was stupidly fast and after about 6 minutes we were were knackered and Rushden took the opportunity and scored, the pace of the game was frantic and the lead changed hands a few times in the first half with Bailey running some beautiful lines to score.
This carried on in the second half and thanks to Mike 'the man' Bonnick doing all the simple things right it allowed the already frantic pace to get even faster, allowing McCollin and Bailey to link up over and aver to put Jake in again. With Rushden scoring at the death, the game looked to be all but over, but with Bonnick and Brad on the back row with Piers they forced the knock on to give Heathens a chance to attack from their own 22. McCollin and Bailey again linked up and between them went the length for Bailey to complete his hatrick (he didn't buy a bloody jug either) with the conversion Heathens ran out 32-34 winners.

a real team performance, with grit and determination, especially after losing Pete Arnold to injury in the first half. Bravery from Fergal Sweeny who (although Irish) came back on injured and made some fantastic tackles, Jack and Harry Baxter who showed maturity way above their years and Kieran Cartwright who managed to get through a game without getting scared and looked dangerous in attack (opposed to just looking dangerously dim this week, we love you really Kieran) Man of the match goes to Mike 'the man' Bonnick for his outstanding work around the pitch and who new he could carry the ball that well? do it more often Bonnick. well done lads, a pleasure as always