Indiscipline costs Keyworth dear in 23 – 31 reverse to strong Ilkeston side.

Ilkeston, with a mixture of youth and experience that mirrored the Keyworth team arrived at Widmerpool and took the spoils in the first half, 14 – 3, against the elements. Having withstood ten minutes of Keyworth pressure from the kick-off, their first foray into home territory resulted in a well worked try for their winger after their captain at outside half made a cracking diagonal break from a quickly tapped penalty on the Keyworth 10m line and after piercing the first defensive line the rest was a formality.

This was to be the pattern of play for much of the match. Keyworth seemingly in control then making mistakes and giving away a huge number of penalties. Ilkeston then reacting speedily whilst Keyworth stood bemoaning their luck or berating themselves and the referee found themselves conceding ground, players to the sin bin and scores to the opposition.

Ilkeston’s 10 and their gargantuan 8 were their key movers along with a strong running inside centre and it was he who ran in their second score almost unopposed from 40m out to increase their lead to 14. Sam Tilaks reduced the deficit by 3 with a well slotted penalty. Each team were hit with a yellow card by a fluorescent official. Firstly James Maddock for a second technical offence, followed by Ilkeston’s 8 for foul play.

Keyworth turned round with renewed vigour and determination and after the Ilkeston second row was yellow carded for a high tackle, somewhat harshly in the eyes of many watching from both sides, they used their numerical advantage to cross first through young Sam Tilaks who darted over from close range and some good driving play from the forwards. Unable to convert that, he did add a penalty on 55 minutes to bring Keyworth within 3 points at 11 – 14.

However, Ilkeston came storming right back and after a quick tap penalty they were prevented from moving the ball by James Muston, who hadn’t retired 10 and he then spent the next 10 minutes in the sin bin. Speed of thought and movement with Keyworth again infringing saw the visitors cross twice in fairly quick succession to extend their lead to 13 points.

The home side though were not going to go down without a fight and their determination and commitment brought them right back into it as JP Disney crossed from close range after the 7 man pack stole one of several strikes against the head at a scrum 7m out from the visitors line. With less than 5 minutes on the clock, Keyworth pulled it back to within a point. Deep in their 22, a poor clearance kick was thankfully knocked on by the Ilkeston full back. Alex Tsang gathered the loose ball, turned and raced toward the Elks line. On encountering the one remaining defender, he deftly passed inside to the supporting Aaron Browning who outstripped the cover to race in from 65m and score under the posts for Sam Tilaks to convert.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be a dream ending with Keyworth grabbing a last minute winner. Instead a breakaway run by the Ilkeston 8 on the far touchline saw him brush away several would-be defenders to score beneath the sticks and Ilkeston finished the game victors by 8 points at 23 – 31.

A close fought battle without a doubt. Some great courage and guts shown by Keyworth to keep fighting back but ultimately they were undone by their own actions and lack of discipline. The forward dominance in the scrum was not replicated in the lineout, the backs failed to fire at all with the ball seldom getting past 10 or 12 and the penalty count against, allied to the yellow cards was the stuff of nightmares.

That said, several player distinguished themselves in battle. Felix Ng made a great debut at hooker, both at the scrum and in the loose and will be a good asset going forward. The ebullient Ed Smith was excellent in the loose with some strong driving runs. There was more of the same from Jon Cooper and his brother, but all too often Keyworth players took the ball back into contact areas instead of trying to use the wide open spaces and the pace in the backs, having done the hard work of sucking the opposition defence in.

A very disappointing result for Keyworth 2s and they will need to ‘up their game’ if they want to overcome the challenge of Long Eaton next week and still be contenders for league honours this season. A good turnout at training this Tuesday at NTU’s High Performance Centre at 7pm will be a promising start.