With injury, illness and some no-shows, a depleted Colts side made the long drive to Towcester to face a strong Towcestrians side in a friendly. With Towcester showing superb sportsmanship and lending players(and some shirts!! best not ask),15 young men lined up on the pitch for kick off. the game was well contested and it took Towcester 15 minutes to get out of their own half due to the ferocity of the colts defence. tackle after tackle and turn over after turnover showed Towcester that even with depleted numbers and people out of position, Saints were not going to be tamed easily. Towcester finally crossed the line after good running lines from the midfield and touched down out wide, conversion added, 7-0 Towcester. more battles in the midfield led Saints to camp in the Towcester 22 and after a wonderful driving maul they were help up in the corner and awarded an attacking scrum. A big nudge by Towcester took the ball from Saints and Towcester, with some slick hands and hard running managed to break out and go the length for their second try. From the kick off, Saints again pinned the hosts in their own half and some good attacking play and tactical kicking from stand in Fly Half Rob McMwaw saw Saints again in the ascendancy but unable to convert. The loss of No 8 Jay Lilley with a hamstring injury meant that the hosts lent another player to keep the numbers up. The hosts then managed to cross for their 3rd try making the half time score 21-0 to the hosts. The passion and pride from the lads during the halftime huddle meant that we coaches had very little to say and the memorable quote from El Capitain Lawrie Pashley was'these boys are nothing special, they reckon we are shit! lets show them different'. With Towcester now lending yet another player as winger Joe Bottomley had to leave to make his shift at work (commitment at its finest, travelling an hour to play when you had work!! thank you Joe) and thinking Saints would fade, the colts actually upped their game and the ferocity of the ball carries and tackling seemed to shock Towcester and it took them a good 20 minutes to finally cross the line. The Saints the recovered the ball from the kick off and a barnstorming run from Lock Ethan Moody gave great field position inside the host 22. Unfortunatley a handling error gave the ball back to Towcester and they again worked their way up the pitch to cross the line. From the ensuing Kick off captain Lawrie Pashley made a clean break from inside the 22 and looked to be uncatchable, accelerating away from the chasing defenders but pulled up just over half way with injury (or that he saw just how far he had left to run??) and Towcester again managed to turn the ball and cross the line for the final act of the match.

There was no man of the match today as the 14 men that started the game (12 finished the game) showed more heart and passion than I could imagine. All were smiling and asking to arrange a return fixture. Towcester were a great bunch and even the Prop who was Yellow carded for punching came over to apologise and shake hands. It was a fitting atmosphere for exiting head coach George Durbridge who is stepping down for a while but wishes the squad well. Thank you to all the players and parents that made the pilgrimage to what seemed like the arse end of nowhere to watch this impressive side we are building. the score did not really reflect the difference in the sides but we take it on the chin and move on to the next game.