It was an express start by Derby displaying an air of confidence in the way they moved the ball quickly to the close support.
Kettering looked stunned for 10 minutes but quickly found their rhythm as they were prepared to run the ball from anywhere. Happily, Derby’s strong defence tackles blunted their enthusiasm as every ball receiver was expecting a quick hit, which usually came with some force. This led to handling errors in Derby’s favour.
Without doubt, Kettering’ strength was in their well balanced and strong pack but Derby’s forwards coped with it where Sam Tebbs and Josh Tizzard worked well to get the ball away under pressure.
It was a truly great team performance with every man playing his part. It is perhaps unfair to single anyone out but young Jerri Oldfield at prop produced an heroic performance showing determination and physicality as well surprising everyone with a 50-metre break from defence.
Josh Bingham found his new boots fitted perfectly by converting the two tries and kicking four penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Make no mistake, this was a hard fought and much deserved win with no injuries. “Mirabile Dictu” as Virgil would say.
Report by:
Gerry Sherry