Old Northamptonians 1st XV welcomed Westcliff RFC to Billing Road looking to bounce back from last weeks frustrating 2 point defeat on the road at Medway. With the team now into the business end of the season, with only 8 games remaining, every point is crucial.
Captain Ben Rivans kicked the game off with ONs going down the ‘slope’ in the first half, on what turned out to be a sunny afternoon, unlike earlier when it had poured with rain for most of the morning.

With 2 mins on the clock it was ONs who got the scoreboard rolling, Will Smears going over in “Briddon’s Corner” with Luke Newton taking the extras from out wide, 7-0. However ONs lead was short lived, Westcliff getting themselves on the board 5 mins later, conversion good, 7-7. A pass out wide, just inside the 22 metre line, found Toby Hunt out on the touchline who sprinted over in “Briddon’s Corner” with no Westcliff player in the vicinity, conversion from Newton again good, 14-7 after 19 mins. As with the 1st try, Westcliff were not to be outdone and went over for their 2nd on 23 mins, conversion missed,14-12. Further to a couple of positive drives into the Westcliff half from Dan Hughes and Lochlan Brown with 29 mins gone, the ball was fed wide right to Zach Bean who went over in the balcony corner, conversion missed, 19-12. Within minutes Westcliff were at the other end, going over for their 3rd try and conversion good to square the score at 19-19. The following 6 minutes saw neither team worry the scoreboard and it was even-stevens at halftime, 19-19.

ONs were straight out of the blocks in the 2nd half and after some good carries by the young guns Civil and Smears, force a penalty 5 metres out under the posts. A ‘tap and go’ saw Lochlan Brown go over to the left of the posts on 44 mins with Newton’s conversion making it, 26-19. Two minutes later and ONs were over again, James De La Cruz powered into the Westcliff 22 and the recycled ball was fed to Toby Hunt who ran in under the posts unchallenged. Conversion from Newton good, 33-19. It was then Callum Burns turn to go over, having started the initial move. He was taken down illegally on the 5 metre line and from the resultant penalty, Callum Lodder sought touch. From the line out ONs formed a maul and Burns was at the bottom of the pile to go over to the left of the posts, conversion good by Newton, 40-19 with 57 mins gone. With time ticking into the red it was Captain Rivans who finished off the scoring. With Westcliff advancing into the ONs half for a final onslaught, Rivans found himself gifted a wayward pass on halfway and then had to muster that last remaining amount of energy to run under the posts unopposed to make it 45-19. Conversion good by Newton to make the final score 47-19 and a bonus point win.

After a fairly abject first half where mistakes and missed tackles were punished by Westcliff ONs really turned it on in the 2nd half with arguably their most complete 40 minutes of the season and 28 unanswered points.

Man of the Match sponsored by Genevieve’s Cafe - Jake Diggin, a fantastic performance all round with some huge hits.

It’s a league weekend off next week but ONs do have the small matter of The Alliance Cup away at Olney.