Picture the scene, an away trip to Keynsham, a Kingswood squad with a bare 15, a Kingswood squad missing key players and Mike Oakley playing as winger! In fact, the first team captain’s girlfriend was called into action to pick up a member of the back row just an hour before kick off. One or two players were even discussing how there could be a heavy defeat on the cards. Well there was no need to fear, as Kingswood usually do in a game with no substitutes, they gave an excellent team performance, and if it wasn’t for some handling errors at key times, the scoreline could have been really bad for Keynsham.

The opening 10 minutes were evenly contested by both teams but Kingswood had the better possession, although neither team created any real scoring chances. It was clear from the start however that Kingswood were going to dominate in the scrums. Dave Vince’s war cries of “I wanna hear Hit, 2, 3 boys” bellowed out at every scrum, which lead to some power engaging, so much so that at one scrum the Keynsham pack went back about a foot.

The next ten minutes Kingswood really started to dominate the game with Keynsham having little of the ball and very rarely entering the Kingswood half. However some good Keynsham defence kept the scores level at 0-0.

Almost out of nothing however, Keynsham found themselves on the Kingswood try line after a penalty was kicked to touch and the resulting lineout won. The ruck was formed and the ball was passed out for a crash ball over the line but luckily for Kingswood the pass was poor and the ball found its way out to the wing where it was gathered and cleared.

There was some excellent tackling on display from Kingswood, most notably from Ben Feltham and Mike Oakley, who both made try saving tackles. But the best tackling display was from Paul Allen who made two outstanding crunching tackles as well as numerous others.

The last 20 minutes of the first half were again evenly contested, and in the last 10 minutes, both teams were making too many handling errors which meant there were hardly and try scoring opportunities. As a result the score was 0-0 at half time.

Half Time: Keynsham II's 0 - 0 Kingswood

Kingswood made a great start to the 2nd half when they were awarded a penalty kick after just one minute and Dean Stephens stepped up and converted the kick to give the game its first points. This seemed to rattle Keynsham who hit back to have a good spell of pressure, but Kingswood’s defence were equal to it.

It was at this point that Keynsham started to lose their cool and on 50 minutes, their No. 17 was sin-binned. Keynsham were twice moved back 10 metres for complaining to the referee and on 65 minutes, Kingswood were awarded a penalty after Keynsham were penalised for un-gentlemanly conduct.

Dean Stephens kicked for goal from the resulting penalty but was unable to convert so the score stayed 0-3. On 67 minutes Kingswood were awarded another penalty after Keynsham tried dropping their side of the scrum. Ian Kirley took over kicking duties from Dean but missed the posts by a matter of inches.

Kingswood continued to dominate the possession and Keynsham were growing increasingly frustrated and this was highlighted when their No. 10 was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Paul Allen. Kingswood were unlucky not to grab a try in the final stages, but unfortunately Mike Oakley failed to get on the end of a pass that would have put him in the corner.

Although Kingswood could not grab that try that would have seen the game off, an excellent defence performance meant that the 3 points were enough for victory.

Final Score: Keynsham II's 0 - 3 Kingswood

Quote of the Week: "I'm larger than the average winger, it'll take him ages to get around me, I'm like a mini roundabout" - Mike Oakley