MEN'S RUGBY: Patrick picks up 18 points as ONs launch fightback to sink Peterborough

Sarel Pretorious went over for the home side early on, and Joe Andresen converted.

The ONs finally managed to show some continuity in their play and after winning a scrum on the opposition 22, Harry Sanderson slid a kick through for Joe Patrick to touch down.

Calum Brennan was then sin-binned and Peterborough quickly extended their lead as Pretorious scored his second try.

Andresen missed the conversion but added a penalty before half-time to take his team into a 15-5 lead.

Defences were on top as the second half opened and it wasn’t until the game entered the final quarter that a Patrick penalty reduced the deficit.

He added a second after Andresen was yellow carded, and Tshepo-Olebile quickly followed him to the sin bin.

After the resulting penalty was put into the corner, the ONs won the lineout and although a strong run from Dave Irvine was halted just short, Chris Reid was on hand to plunge over.

ONs were on top and after Sanderson again kicked ahead, the clearance return was collected by Patrick 40 metres out before he beat a couple of tackles to score.

He added the conversion to end the game with a personal tally of 18 points.

Pretorious then completed his hat-trick to earn Peterborough their losing bonus point.

With the final whistle imminent, Andresen added the two points to cut the gap to just one point at full-time.

Meanwhile, Old Northamptonians IIs were beaten 32-10 by Kettering IIs.

The ONs were on the back foot for much of the game, with Kettering scoring a number of tries out wide through a combination of clever kicking and fortunate bounces.

Wet conditions made it difficult for both sides, but the visitors were more

clinical when it mattered, scoring six times and converting once.

They certainly did not have it all their own way, though.

The ONs worked hard around the breakdown in the first half to create space for No.8 Kieran Murdie to carry the ball over the line.

And outside centre Joe Rolleston defied the drizzle to set up hooker Liam Price with a looping pass late in the day.

Man of the match Gary Morton, playing out of position at fly-half, did his best to feed his backs despite Kettering’s ascendancy at the

scrum.

And Morton also led an admirable defensive effort against the visitors’ incisive attacking play.

Towcestrians 10 Dorking 24

TOWCESTRIANS’ difficult season continued with a defeat to a team only a few places above them in the London & SE Premier table.

Tows started brightly and repelled some early attacks from Dorking, including holding out two five-metre scrums, but it was the visitors who broke the deadlock on 10 minutes.

Tows then compounded that error by gifting another try.

But the home side responded well and after strong pressure in the Dorking 22, scrum-half Ronnie Speakman dived over for a try, converted by Matt Yuill.

A penalty shortly after by Yuill brought the scores level at half-time.

The Dorking pack held the upper hand in the second half as Tows tired, driving a line out over for a score and then going over again towards the end of the match with a scrum pushover.

Both efforts were converted to leave Towsdisappointed after failing to take their own opportunities.

Meanwhile, a depleted Towcestrians IIs went down away from home, losing 27-0 to Derby.

Stockwood Park 37 Casuals 7

A WEAKENED Casuals side saw their promotion hopes dented by a poor performance away to Stockwood

Park.

The visitors did take an early lead when prop Lee Lawrence went over from a line-out, with Jonny Schoeman converting.

However, the home side hit back quickly with two tries and a penalty to go into half-time with a comfortable

lead.

The home side’s dominance continued in the second half as they adapted better to the difficult conditions and ran in four tries without response to record a deserved victory.

Syston 47 Scouts 0

SCOUTS were unable to build on the previous week’s win against Peterborough as they suffered a big defeat to the table-toppers in Midlands 1 (East).

Biggleswade 9 BBOB 7

BB looked to be heading for a precious away victory as they led 7-6 going into the final stages of this Midlands Three East South clash.

But the home side threw a spanner in the works with a late, late penalty that secured the win.