Match Report

League Match

Kingswood Vs Dursley

Kingswood's final league game of the season was a promotion decider against Dursley.  A win wouldn't be enough for Kingswood, it would require a 19 point victory if they were to go up on points difference.  The previous showdown finished 8-8 on a horrible winters day, but with the sun beating down, it was a perfect day for rugby.

The game started off highly contested between the two teams and did not let up throughout the first half of the game.  For the first 35 minutes there was little points scoring action, thanks mainly to both teams excellent defending.  Kingswood however suffered an injury early on when Alex Green's recurring rib problem saw him replaced by Cornelius Imobeke.

With the game looking as though it was heading into half time scoreless, Kingswood started to place Dursley under pressure and did finally cross the tryline, however the referee deemed the ball to be held up.  Kingswood continued to battle though and from the resulting 5m scrummage, the ball found its way out to Ian Kirley on the wing who dived over in the corner to give Kingswood a 5-0 lead.

However, as soon as it came, the lead was taken away.  With the game now into its 5th minute of injury time, Dursley were awarded a lineout from which their backs were released and No. 15 ran from inside the Dursley half to go over beneath the posts. 5-7

Just before the half time whistle sounded, Kingswood were forced into another change with injured Scrum Half Ben Phillips being replaced by Dave Vince.

Half Time:  Kingswood 5 - 7 Dursley

The 2nd half was sadly not the evenly contested first half that the 100+ crowd had enjoyed.   Dursley's impressive backs took control and used the wide Kingswood pitch to their advantage and they crossed the Kingswood tryline after just 6 minutes of the 2nd half gone. 5 - 12

There was much of the same on 56 minutes when again Dursley's backs were allowed to run and this time No. 12 made it over the Kingswood whitewash. 5-17

Mark McGarrigle then made way for Neil Ward

Kingswood then battled back and made a real game of it again for the next 20 minutes and pushed hard to grab another try, but as they pushed forward they fell behind further as No. 19 broke free and Kingswood were guilty of missed tackles as he made it over to grab Dursley's 4th try. 5-24

Kingswood did not give up though, despite knowing that the game was out of reach, there was still a fighting spirit and it paid off when straight from the restart they inched up the Dursley half with some excellent recycling in the rucks and eventually the ball was fed through the hands of the backs before reaching Paul Allen who sold a nice side step and broke through the Dursley defence to grab another try for Kingswood. 10-24

However it was Dursley who had the last say on the game when No. 13 and No. 3 both crossed the Kingswood tryline in injury time, as noticeably tired Kingswood team resigned to defeat.  The referee ended the game and Kingswood walked off knowing that they were to play in Gloucester 2 again next season.

But despite the loss, Kingswood have a lot to be proud of from their season of hard work.  A largely unchanged team that earned promotion only last season, have ended up with a comfortable 3rd place finish and a cup run that saw them reach the Semi Finals.  If Kingswood play to their full potential again next season, then promotion is an achievable target for this group of guys.

  Full Time: Kingswood 10 - 36 Dursley