Sat 21 Oct 2023
Peterborough RUFC made the trip to Northampton Old Scouts this past Saturday and came out on the wrong side of a very entertaining game, losing 38 points to 34.
Borough started brightly enough against the second place team and went out to a 14 -3 lead with tries to wingers Harry Anderson and Tom Downer with flyhalf Byron Van Uden adding 2 excellent sideline conversions. A lapse in concentration at the end of the first half saw Scouts score a converted try to leave Borough with 14-10 half time lead.
The second half was very even with both sides competing for every thing. Borough's scrum caused the home side all sorts of problems with props Chris Sykes and Stu Day also punching holes in the opposition defence with ball in hand. Both sides traded tries with Alec Barradell, Stu Day and Ross Chamberlain scoring a try each but the bounce of the ball was favouring the home side as they managed to score 5 second half tries. With the score at 38-34 to Scouts Borough had one more chance to score a match winning try but Scouts defence forced a turn over to bring a end to the game. Borough can be proud of their efforts against the second placed side and managed 2 bonus points for scoring 5 tries and coming with in 7 points.
Director of Rugby Shane Manning's comments " we had 7 changes again to this weeks side which makes things difficult with continuity in the side but I'm really proud of the lads today. The bounce of the ball didn't go our way and on another day we would of won comfortably. We have blooded some new lads though and Harry Anderson and Ash Williams are starting to settle into first team rugby. We have a week off now so we can rest up. We next have a home game against Nuneaton on the 4th of November,2.30pm ko. I've no doubt we will put on a good performance but we need to get on a winning run and climb up the competition ladder, we haven't given a true reflection of how good a side we could be but thats up to the lads to put that right".
