MK start their season with a win against a very fired up Didcot on Saturday.

MK start their season with a win against a very fired up Didcot on Saturday.

Didcot made the were the better team for the majority of the first half but a dogged defensive performance from MK kept the score line down and MK in touch.
From the start Didcot were fired up, looking to take the game to MK and were rewarded on 10minutes with the opening try, missed conversion.
This seemed to wake MK up, and they started to claw their way into the match, earning several penalties, and using the effective driving maul made good yards only for the ball to split, turned over or solid defence preventing them from scoring. However, it was from great work from the forwards with a driving maul and good controlled phase play, saw Lewis Barnett score, conversion was missed, but MK were back on level terms.
As is often the case, straight from the restart Didcot earned themselves a penalty in front of the post, for which they converted to take an 8 – 5 lead.
Didcot turned the screw, for the remaining 15 minutes and although MK defended well, the dominant Didcot scrum was going forward for the scrum half to dot down and extend the lead, the conversion was successful and Didcot took a 15 – 5 lead into the break.

MK took the 10 minute break to reassess and take stock of what they needed to do, this was evident from the second half performance as they scrapped their way into the game, but only after 15mins of sustained pressure from Didcot, who missed a shot at goal in that time.
MK finally woke up and having defended very well for the first 65 minutes, started to get good go forward ball and strong runs from debutants Jacob Saddington and Zach Manuel, got MK on the front foot and resulted in Jacob Saddington scoring to the left of the posts.
Didcot seemingly started to tire as MK woke up in attack and a perfectly timed cross field kick by Mackenzie landed directly in the hands of Vince Clark who made good yards, only to be stopped 20 meters out but Dan Summers, another debutant, was on his shoulder to scorch away and score. Dan Pearson with the conversion. MK taking the lead for the first time 17 – 15.
MK had their heads up, and were starting to cause Didcot problems and with only 2 minutes on the clock left Pearson made a strong run into the Didcot 22m, offloading to Phipps who was illegally stopped just short of the line. From the resulting penalty MK drove the ball forward for Lewis Barnett to score his second of the game. (he almost managed to smile too). Conversion was missed.
The final whistle blew and MK had survived a Didcot onslaught for 60 minutes, only to absorb the pressure and turn the game on its head.
Lots of positives for both teams coming from this game. MK giving five 18 year olds their debuts, along with David Foord and Jacob Saddington.

Good luck to Dicot for the remainder of the season and we look forward to hosting you in the final game of the season.

MK have 2 weekends off now before hosting Slough on 30th September

MOTM – Jacob Saddington – great go forward ball and cleaning up the ball from a tough day at the office behind a scrum going backwards. Stop running into scrum halves who hit like a train though