This weekend, Kingswood RFC were proud to host the Bristol Combination XV (hereafter called Bristol) as part of their charity event for Jamie Cooper & the “Help For Heroes” campaign. The match was played in front of a 300+ crowd, despite the cold and muddy conditions. Bristol looked extremely impressive during their warm-up which is not surprising given that their team was made up from players in Gloucester Premier and above!

It only took Bristol 4 minutes before they grabbed their first points of the game. It’s not often that Kingswood have their put-in at the scrum overturned but such was the impressive pack in the Combination team that this is exactly what happened. Bristol’s Scrum Half released the backs and despite the boggy pitch, there was incredible pace in the centre that seized upon the smallest of openings in the Kingswood defence and good support lead to No. 10 going over. The drop kick conversion was missed. 0-5

5 minutes later and there was another score for Bristol as No. 13 cut a lovely line next to a secured ruck which left him with a one on one with Kingswood’s Full Back, Paul Bennett. There was nothing Bennett could do as the pass made its way out to No. 15 in support who had an unchallenged run in over the line. No. 15 added the conversion as well and Kingswood now trailed 0-12

With Kingswood trailing and looking somewhat overwhelmed by the talent that stood opposite them, they then put in an impressive 10 minutes that not only restricted the play of Bristol, but also led to their first scoring opportunity. With Bristol controlling a rolling maul in their own 22, the Kingswood forwards managed to turn over the ball and counter attack with their own rolling maul that incredibly moved forward with ease towards the try-line. Damien Crosswell was on hand to dive over the line with the ball but the referee deemed it was held up. Nevertheless it was a morale boosting attack from Kingswood who were now taking the game to Bristol well.

There was then an excellent piece of Kingswood defending as Bristol’s No. 11 broke through with incredible pace and looked certain to score, that was until Brad Whiston showed his blistering pace as well to get back and put in an excellent tap tackle near the Kingswood try-line which sent No. 11 crashing to the floor. It wasn’t clear from the sideline whether the ball was placed down in the try area but Kingswood didn’t need to worry as fortunately the referee suffered a pulled arse muscle in his attempt to catch the two wingers and he restarted the game with a scrum on the 5m line for Bristol.

The injury to the referee meant an early substitution in the game as he and his assistant swapped places!

Kingswood battled during the resulting scrum but the boggy conditions were making hard to resist the Bristol drive and a quick move ended with No. 10 once again slipping through. No. 15 added the kick and Kingswood now trailed 0-19

There was one further try in the half for the Bristol just after the half hour mark as Kingswood were guilty of missed tackles after a Bristol penalty and No. 6 made it over the line. 0-24

Half Time: Kingswood 0-24 Bristol Combination XV

Kingswood started the 2nd half playing the better rugby of the two teams and controlled the first 10 minutes by playing the game in Bristol’s half. On 53 minutes, their possession and persistence paid off as several crash balls saw them creep closer to the line and Steve Trevelyan was next in line for Kingswood as he crashed over the line for a well earned try. Ben Phillips missed the drop kick conversion but Kingswood had their first points to make the score 5-24

Kingswood then made four substitutions as Ben Phillips, Derek James, Brad Whiston and Adam Morris made way for Dave Vince, Lewis Voisey, Anthony Davies and Rob Edwards

Kingswood then conceded another try in the 66th minute as they lost possession of a ruck and Bristol’s quick counter attack saw No. 21 go over in the corner. The resulting conversion was missed and Kingswood now trailed 5-29

Sam Massey then made an appearance as he replaced Stan Bailey for Kingswood.

Despite the scoreline, Kingswood continued to battle up until the final whistle and prevented Bristol from scoring anymore points. The referee ended the game and Kingswood had drawn the 2nd half 5 all which is a credit to them given the opposition.

The result was not the important factor for the day however, what mattered was an excellent turn out and a good game of rugby for the spectators meant that the clubhouse was full to bursting afterwards which lead to a lot of money being raised on the day. In fact, so far a total just short of £3,000 has been counted and this figure is still rising! A big well done to everyone involved!

A big thank you as well to Alan McAteer who gave up his time to photograph the match and kindly donated the pictures for free.

Full Time: Kingswood 5-29 Bristol Combination XV