Keyworth pip Castle Donington by 17 points to 10

Stuart Clark’s men were the beneficiaries as they collected the league points to maintain their promotion challenge. With a very even first 30 minutes and no score on the board, the NLD official completely missed a Keyworth knock-on in midfield as he kept an eye on players close to the touchline, to ensure that nothing unsavoury took place. As almost all the players stopped in their tracks in anticipation of the whistle, Tom Muncey gathered the ball and raced in unopposed from about 30m, much to the chagrin of the home side, their coaches and supporters. If ever the old adage, ‘play to the whistle’, was appropriate, this was it. The impeccable Simon Richards slotted the conversion to give the visitors a 7 point lead to take into the break.

The game had taken a while to get going, especially when the first scrum needed resetting nearly half a dozen times. As a consequence, Keyworth’s loose head Adam Budgen spent more scrummage time on his knees than a veteran streetwalker. Throughout the match, Castle Donington had the upper hand at the breakdown where they committed considerably more men than the black & ambers and were able to overturn several pieces of what should have been secure Keyworth possession.

First action of the second half saw a svelte (front 5 forwards, refer to dictionary) Adam Waldron charging through the Donington defence on a 30m run, but the thin red line held firm and Keyworth were denied. This was followed by an immense catch and drive from a lineout on the Donington 10m line as the home side rolled a maul downfield to almost the visitors 22m line, after a few further phases of play Castle Donington were awarded a penalty 25m out when Keyworth were adjudged to have handled at the ruck. This brought the score back to 3 – 7 as the kick duly spliced the uprights on 46 minutes.

This spurred Donington into even greater action and they took the lead within another 4 minutes. When a Keyworth clearance failed to find touch, Donington pegged them back deep in their 22 with a kick into the corner that had the defence scurrying to sidefoot the ball into touch. From the ensuing lineout on the 5m, they drove the visitors back over their line for ‘Moose’ to cross. An excellent conversion from wide out gave them a 10 – 7 lead.

The crowd of 45 or so had another 15 minutes to wait for the next score, with little memorable action to report, other than an amusing sidecrack from skipper Clark, who on gathering a high clearance, left two defenders clutching nothing but air as he quipped “See ya”, much to their disgust and his delight. Deep in the Donington 22, a home scrum wheeled through a precise 190 degrees according to the ref. The ensuing Keyworth scrum suffered the same fate and as Castle Donington fed the last in the trilogy, the Keyworth eight put on a massive shove, driving the home side backward, pinching the ball and as the opposition back-row broke off, Keyworth pushed almost to the line before Richard Johnson at No. 8 picked up, fell over the line and scored to regain the lead as Richo added the extras.

It wasn’t much longer before he was lining up another attempt at goal as Donington were penalised in their 22 for being offside at the ruck. The successful kick extended the lead to 17 – 10 and that was how it finished, despite Donington’s attempts to bring the scores level. They were very nearly assisted by Owen Phillips, as he took more goes at trying to put the ball into touch on the last play of the game, than pints scrounged by Jedward last season.

So Keyworth used up their ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card for this season and nobody there would have argued had it finished all square. They say it’s the mark of a good team if they can win when not playing well, so hopefully this demonstrates that this side will get even stronger. Plus points were the debuts, off the bench, for Sam Tilaks and Jack Starr, both acquitting themselves very well in the 30 minutes or so that they got to show their wares. Neither looking out of place in the higher echelons of league rugby.

Donington’s defence was resolute throughout the game despite the strong running of Keyworth players. It’s possible that in the future, a search for open space might bring more reward than the more direct approach of finding the nearest red shirt and blasting into it, brought today.

Most improbable moment of the match came when Johnno, half-tackled as he tried to drive off the base off the scrum, managed a half-decent clearance kick as he found himself closer to horizontal than vertical. As this is written, a mere 3.5 hours after the game, you can put your mortgage on the fact that he’ll have regaled his teammates with an action replay on at least 47 occasions by now.

Other noteworthy points were the midfield defence of Steve Hart and Gregsy, the strong scrummaging of the Keyworth eight, Richo’s line and place kicking, Phil Parnham’s ripping in the mauls and the confidence that the side showed throughout, always believing that they’d emerge victorious. Overall, a reasonable result recorded and hopefully more to come in the following weeks as Keyworth do their best to finish in one of the promotion places.