Match Report

Cup Match

Smiths Industries V Kingswood

 Kingswood's first cup game was a journey up to Cheltenham for a match with Smiths Industries.  Kingswood started incredibly well with powerful rolling mauls and stealing the first 3 Smiths lineouts.

With only 5 minutes gone, Kingswood were awarded a penalty when Smiths failed to retreat 10 metres.  Dean Stephens kicked for goal and converted well. 0-3.

4 minutes later and Kingswood were awarded a penalty which Dean Stephens kicked to touch.  Kingswood secured the resulting lineout and drove towards the Smith tryline, Damien Crosswell dropped over the line and gave the game the first try of the match. 0-8.

Smiths battled back and made it close to the Kingswood tryline but their defence held firm.  On 20 minutes, Kingswood secured another lineout and put on another impressive drive.  Smiths pushed back and the Kingswood maul came to a halt but a quick thinking Ben Phillips took the ball from the back and sent a kick over the top,  Dean Stephens chased the kicked and caught the ball well and had an easy run in to score Kingswood's 2nd try of the game.  He even converted the resulting kick and Kingswood had a 15 point lead.

Kingswood were awesome in the scrums and were rotating them well which resulted in a lot of turnovers.  Dean Stephens was sending some excellent kicks down field and on 34 minutes he sent another long kick that was kicked into touch by the Smiths full-back.  Kingswood once again secured the resulting lineout and drove towards the Smiths line, Ben Phillips then sent out pass to Mark McGarrigle who dived over to give Kingswood their 3rd try and Dean Stephens once again converted to give Kingswood a 22 points to nothing lead at half time.

Half Time: Smiths Industries 0 - 22 Kingswood

With Kingswood holding a comfortable 22 point lead there was a disastrous start to the 2nd half when after only 4 minutes gone, No. 14 amazing broke from nowhere and ran the entire half of the pitch to secure Smiths first try of the game.  No. 10 converted and the score was now 7-22.

There was even more bad news when 3 minutes later Smiths grabbed another try when a passing move from their own 22 saw a 3 man overlap in which Smiths broke free and No. 10 secured Smiths 2nd try in with only 7 minutes gone of the 2nd half. 12-22.

The game was then turned on it's head and what seemed a comfortable lead for Kingswood suddenly became a lot more closer with still 33 minutes of the game remaining.

Kingswood then got their acts together and pushed hard to try and regain their comfortable lead.  They came close when they were only 5 metres out and Matthew Davis dived in front of an attempted Smiths clearance to send the ball looping into the air, unfortunately Alex Green was unable to catch the ball in flight and Smiths secured the ball when it finally landed. 

 On 63 minutes Smiths were awarded a penalty for an early tackle and No. 10 once again converted to bring Smiths within a converted try of being level. 15-22.

Then, with only 6 minutes to go,  Dean Stephens got on the end of a flowing move and was within seconds of being tackled when he suddenly dinked the ball over the top of the Smiths defender and immediately flicked the ball out Mike Oakley who popped the ball out to John Bogan who ran over to make the game secure.  Dean Stephens finished off an excellent kicking display by converting to give Kingswood a 15-29 lead.

Kingswood and Smiths then played out a scrappy finish and Kingswood held on to make it through to the next round with a 15-29 points win.

Full Time: Smiths Industries 15 - 29 Kingswood

Quote of The Week: "Where do we put on our ensembles?" - Dean Stephens