Rhodes Experience Calms Kingswood Nerves As Home-side Claim Cup Victory

Having not claimed a victory as yet in 2016/17, Kingswood had the chance to get their season up and running with a Bristol Combination Cup fixture against Gloucester 3's, Cotham Park.

With the injury and absentee crisis at Kingswood not improving during the week, Kingswood were forced to make a staggering 10 changes to the side that played Minchinhampton last week. Despite giving debuts to Jordan Donavan and Louis Tasker, Kingswood were forced to play injury-retired Head Coach, Mike Jones, at Fly-Half and Flanker, Rich Shacklock, joined Scott Bailey in the Centre. Dave Vince moved to from the Front-Row into the Scrum Half position.

The first 40 minutes were a real scrum-fest, as strong winds and rusty hands led to a lot of errors from both sides. It was the visitors that took the lead in the match halfway through the first half, as they made their way downfield with a series of penalties, before scoring in the corner after a 5 metre line-out.

Just before half-time, Scott Bailey reduced the deficit to 3-5 with a well struck penalty and this is how the scores remained going into half time.

The early period in the 2nd half did nothing to help Kingswood's injury crisis. Firstly, new signing Louis Tasker was forced to leave the field with a dislocated shoulder, an injury which could see him out for a few months, before Captain, Mark Oakley, also retired from the game with a bad back. The reshuffle led to Chris Rhodes joining the game, which sparked a massive difference to proceedings.

Rhodes' calming influence on the game was instant, twice pinging long downfield kicks into Cotham Park territory to put the visitors on the back foot. Soon after, it was great work by Rhodes again that created space to send Scott Bailey clear and over the line for his 4th try of the season. Bailey also added the conversion to give Kingswood a 10-5 lead.

Soon after though, Cotham Park were level and and to then make matters worse, Scott Bailey was then shown a straight red card for violent conduct, and from the resulting penalty, Cotham Park took the lead with only 10 minutes of the game remaining. 10-13.

With the injuries to the front row and with all 3 substitutes having been made, the game was now being played with uncontested scrums. With Rhodes' tactical kicking still proving decisive and putting Kingswood in strong territorial positions, new boy Donavan was moved to No. 8 and the big unit started to cause the visitors real issues. From one such scrum, Donavan broke from the back and drove towards the line, Cotham Park were penalised for not rolling away, and Tom Baker's quick thinking saw him take a quick tap before feeding the ball to Alex Evans, who powered over the line with several defenders still clinging on. The referee awarded Kingswood the try, and from the resulting fall-out, Cotham Park were reduced to 14 men as their No. 8 was sent to the bin for arguing with the referee. 17-13.

With Kingswood now in the lead with very little time remaining, there was still time to make the game safe, as Robbie Edwards broke through the defensive line to run over unopposed. 24-13.

It was a much needed victory for Kingswood, who return to league action next week with a tricky away trip to Ross-on-Wye.