Keyworth IIs triumph 41 – 7 at Long Eaton

The black & ambers welcomed back Adam Sheen after several months sidelined with a knee injury and it wasn’t long before Sheeny made his presence felt by crashing over from 5m out in only the second minute of the game. Good approach work from Jason Holland set up a ruck close to the home side’s line and an alert Sam Tilaks went blind before feeding the Sheen on the crash. Judging from the size of him, Sam's not been the only one feeding the Sheen, of late!

Most of the next 38 minutes was an assortment of player errors and penalties as both sides tried to run out the rustiness of having spent the last 3 weeks shopping, doing DIY or watching the 6 Nations on TV. Continual playing of the ball on the ground by both teams saw a string of penalties and the referee telling both sides to leave the ball alone on the ground.

Long Eaton IIs grasped this instruction more quickly than Keyworth and with good placement of the ball enabled players to pick and go close to the breakdown where defence was often thin and they gained much territory and possession this way. Their reward came in the 34th minute when their tight head prop took the ball down the blindside off a maul following a lineout and when tackled well by Aaron Browning, he fed the winger to run in unopposed from 15m. A great conversion that just managed to hang long enough on the wind to drop on the correct side of the crossbar saw the home side propelled into the lead at the halfway stage.

Unless something dramatic happened, it was looking like a straightforward home win but Keith Scott’s men are made of stern stuff and they stormed back for a second half showing that saw them run in 6 tries without return. The first on 46 minutes was beautifully finished by Sam Tilaks taking an offload in the tackle from Jack Starr with his fingertips and diving across the line in one fluid movement to score. Tom Daley wouldn’t have scored higher in the Olympic Test event at the Aquatic Centre this weekend!

The next two Keyworth scores went to Lawrence Chan in his first game for the club and hopefully not his last. The first of these came from a well anticipated interception on halfway and a run that outstripped the home defence, with Sam Tilaks adding his first two-pointer of the day. Lawrence’s second score was another well worked try after excellent work by the whole back line with Sam again adding the extras.

Alex Tsang then ran in his 11th try of the season after good approach work by Jason Holland, Jaron Leung and Jack Starr who again supplied the final pass (eventually!). Determined to get on the scoresheet, the young lanky streak of ****, then finished off a further movement when fed a pass by James Maddock at exactly the right time to run in from 25m. James later admitted that he’d have run it in himself had he not feared that cramp would prevent him from making it to the line! Two more points to the Tilaks tally as the conversion in front of the posts sailed over.

Final Keyworth score came from Jaron Leung who burrowed his way over from 2m in the 78th minute after a succession of Keyworth attempts had been repelled by resolute Long Eaton defence. This was just reward for an excellent performance from newcomer Jaron who will be a valuable addition to the squad.

In the end, a fine effort by 16 players from Keyworth who had to adapt to several late cry-offs and no-shows, plus 2 players who arrived 25 minutes after the stipulated kick-off time and who will be dealt with severely when the court is next in session! A big thanks must go to Long Eaton who were fantastic hosts, providing Keyworth with a front row player for the entire match so that contested scrums could take place. Their full squad played their hearts out, never gave up and kept the banter going throughout. Champagne moment of the match came late on when they had a lineout on the Keyworth 5m line and their prop came charging into the line from about 10m away in the hope of catching the ball and crashing over line. Unfortunately it was not to be as this move was deemed illegal around the same time as Noah built his ark! The same player will no doubt find himself in front of a kangaroo court for the most heinous of crimes by a prop forward ……………. kicking away possession in the opposition 22 when there are 4 players in position to receive the pass! It’s unlikely he’ll ever be allowed to play again for that foul misdemeanour!

Sheeny scored then retired to the sideline, Felix was very late but did well in the loose and lineout, James Maddock gave his usual excellent display of solid scuimmaging and tackling and Dave was from Long Eaton, so that’s the story of the front row. The Scott family distinguished themselves as always: John ruled the front of the line, Keith led from the font and Mark has more front than Blackpool. It was good to see Mark back in action and he carried the ball well whenever the opportunity arose. Father John will be remembered for one lineout barge that was so big it would have struggled to navigate the Grand Union Canal!

The back row of Jaron, Jack and Doug Martin were all action. The latter having several good catches from kick-offs and strong runs into contact. Jaron we’ve already mentioned and Jack was probably on balance, Man of the Match. Although almost unused at the lineout, he tackled well, made half a dozen or more runs, scored one and assisted 2 others.

Sam put in another cracking performance at scrum-half and his line kicking and kick-offs went very well. His running often created space for others and he mixed up his game a lot more than we’ve seen from him before. Jason Holland worked tirelessly in attack and defence. Always prepared to take the opposition on in broken field running he made several great runs and his positional play on occasion was outstanding.
The only thing to let him down was a chip kick that was neither a chip nor a kick. Keep it in hand Jase!

The centre pairing of King and Chan were solid in defence and always prepared to run at the opposition, in Mark’s case usually diagonally straight back into the heavily congested contact areas instead of the wide open spaces where his speedy partners lay waiting. Tsangy was also very late but ran well and remains top try scorer. Zander also ran well on the couple of occasions he saw the ball and worked hard in the contact areas when he was often the first man there. Aaron was strong in defence and as always, ran the ball well from deep, beating the first man every time.

An all round good display and return to action for the 2nds who will face a stiffer test away at Mellish next week. Congratulations must also go to Keyworth 1st XV who became the first team to defeat top of the table Boston this season downing them by 27 – 24 at Widmerpool in an epic performance! Well done guys, promotion is still on the agenda!