Kingswood Keep Marching On

The next team standing in the way of Kingswood’s pursuit of a clean sweep were 2nd placed St. Brendan’s. The away fixture way back in September saw Kingswood take the spoils with a 10-22 victory. Earlier injury worries in the week regarding Vince Murrell and Dave Tomlin were not as bad as first thought and both were available from the offset. In fact, despite missing Captain Neil Ward and various others, Kingswood still managed to have a formidable looking bench containing Alex Green and Nick Coe.

Kingswood were out to settle their nerves early and with just 2 minutes on the clock, Ian Kirley sent a lovely downfield kick deep into the opposition half, the ball was fumbled and grounded in the try area by the St. Brendan’s Winger and Kingswood were awarded a scrum 5 metres out. The passage of play finally led to Kingswood crashing over the line, but the referee deemed it was held up and the scores remained level.

Another opportunity then arose with Paul Allen nearly making his way over the line, but St. Brendan’s held firm to keep the scores level. With increasing frustration at being so close, but not close enough, careless mistakes started to creep into Kingswood’s game as they showed on more than one occasion a willingness to try and be clever with their offloads during contact, instead of just keeping things simple. Combined with St. Brendan’s being to nearly every ruck first, causing Kingswood unwanted disruption, it meant that Kingswood were kept at bay for over 25 minutes.

But finally, a much needed breakthrough. With 28 minutes gone, Ian Kirley was sent clear on the wing by James Willmott and it looked to all that Kirley was clean through, but what no one had banked on was a St. Brendan’s player catching him up and tackling him just short of the line. Kingswood’s Forwards kept the pressure on however and after a few crash balls, the ball made its way out to Dave Tomlin who smashed his way over the line, getting himself entangled with the post at the same time and damaging his ribs. Ben Phillips slotted home the easy conversion and Kingswood led 7-0.

It was clear in the opening half an hour that the breakdowns were not going to be given the time to develop and this lead to the whistle going every 2 or so minutes. This was clear from the restart when Kingswood were penalised almost instantly and St. Brendan’s opted to take a very long shot at goal. Unfortunately for Kingswood, the St. Brendan’s kicker had an impressive boot on him and he easily made the conversion to bring the scores closer at 7-3.

Spurred on by the fact that St. Brendan’s were being forced to take the 3 points rather than go for the 7, Kingswood looked to increase their lead and try and put some clear daylight between them and the opposition. St. Brendan’s reluctance to keep ball in hand and instead kick down the throats of James Willmott and Ian Kirley, was ultimately leading to their downfall. 5 minutes after the restart, Kingswood then showed how much muscle they have upfront as Vince Murrell and Mark Oakley put on a master class on how to smash through the opposition. With St. Brendan’s players being sucked in left, right and centre, the ball was spun out to Dean Stephens in the Backs, who dodged an attempted tackle before diving over the line. Ben Phillips was unable to make the conversion. 12-3.

Eager to remind everyone who was in charge, the referee deemed that Dean Stephens celebration of throwing the ball down on the floor was not a very nice thing to do and awarded St. Brendan’s a penalty kick from the restart.

The remainder of the half stopped and started to a sea of referring whistles until finally the half was over, with Kingswood holding a comfortable lead.

Half Time: Kingswood 12 – 3 St. Brendan’s

Coach Mike Jones made it clear at half time what Kingswood needed to do to finish the game off and secure the 2 points. From the restart, Kingswood went out and put the plan into action. The opening 5 minutes of the 2nd half saw a much more ferocious Kingswood at the rucks in their attempt to stop St. Brendan’s from turning over possession like the first half. A powerful Forward display knocked St. Brendan’s back until Dave Tomlin once again got the ball down over the line for Kingswood. Ben Phillips slotted home the kick and Kingswood had stretched their lead to 19-3.

With the hour mark approaching, Veteran Stan Bailey made way for the young blood of Alex Green.

There then came a setback for Kingswood as St. Brendan’s capitalised on a Kingswood error to kick a loose ball downfield and bouncing towards the Kingswood try line. At first it seemed like the Kingswood Full-Back would get back to the ball before the St. Brendan’s Winger, until we realised it was Prop Robert Lamb, who assures me he was hanging out at the back only to cover the Full-Back position as no one else was. Anyway, a fat lot of good it turned out to be as, try as he might, Lamb was overtaken by the Winger who had the simple job of falling on the ball to give St. Brendan’s their first try. 19-10.

10 minutes remaining and Kingswood were pressing once again, eager to get back their substantial lead. Finding themselves in St. Brendan’s 22 and with a penalty advantage, the ball made its way out to Paul Allen in the centre who used his sidestep to great affect and was left with a clear run-in. Sadly, the referee for some unknown reason deemed this not to be of any advantage to Kingswood and called them back for the penalty. Even worse for Kingswood was that the conversion attempt was missed and the scores remained the same.

Anthony Davies then made way for Nick Coe.

Despite the penalty setback, Kingswood continued to keep Brendan’s pinned in their half and with 5 minutes remaining, were awarded another penalty. This time Ben Phillips made no mistake in slotting the ball home and Kingswood were now 22-10 up.

With time almost up, a Kingswood lineout was taken in and a few more seconds wasted before Vince Murrell put the ball out to secure Kingswood their 14th win of their league campaign and despite a stop start game which saw a staggering 32 penalties awarded, it was another vital 22-10 victory against St. Brendan’s this season.
But it didn’t end their for the Kingswood, when the RFU released the updated league table on the evening, it appears our two closest title challengers, Cotham Park and St. Brendans, as well as Cainscross and Cheltenham Saracens, were all deducted 2 league points, its not known why, but I’m sure time will tell. Anyway, this means that Kingswood sit at the top of the Gloucester 2 pile with a staggering 11 point lead with 6 games remaining.

Final Score: Kingswood 22 - 10 St. Brendans

MOM No. 1: Dave Tomlin
MOM No. 2: Anthony Davies