Sat 28^th February 04
Northampton Old Scouts 3^rd XV 21 - Ampthill Extras 15     

Scouts clear the path. 

In the opening few moments of this game it looked a fairly even contest. Then Old Scouts scored three tries to give themselves a fifteen point lead after only twenty five minutes. Even though one of the tries should have been disallowed for offside, The Extras still looked as if they were still in the changing room.

The Extras then stepped up a gear with the forwards battling hard to gain possession for the backs. With the ball the Extras were starting to look much sharper. Centre John Kitchiner burst through to open Ampthill’s account with a try. Shaun Wood converted to cut Scout’s lead to just eight points. The backs worked well for Ampthill’s next try, John Kitchiner & Tom Read worked well to put Ian Browning in to cut the gap to just three points. A penalty was awarded to Ampthill just before half time to level the scores at the break.  

The second half saw the Extras comeback halted. Old Scouts scored two penalties. Despite Scouts having a player sin binned the Extras could not capitalise on their one player advantage. When it finally seemed a try had come for the Extras when Terry Nelson crashed over the line the referee claimed the ball was not grounded and no try was award. 

Throughout the game the referee had made a number of dubious decisions. Without the referee being particularly biased it did seem the Extras received more than their fair share of wrong decisions from the man in charge.    

Tries:          John Kitchiner, Ian Browning

Cons:          Shaun Wood 

Pen:             Shaun Wood