Following excellent home victories over Hucclecote and Ashley Down in the last 2 weeks, Kingswood had yet another home fixture, this time, they welcomed Spartans of Gloucester. Kingswood were now without Paul Allen, Tom-Jones Griffiths, Alex Green, Dave Tomlin, Ian Kirley and Ashley Honeywell. Returning from injury early though was Joe Jones-Griffiths, who started at Full-Back with a heavily bandaged hand in order to get the team out of a hole. Kingswood also welcomed back Gareth Pond, who joined James Willmott in the Centre, and Dave Vince, who slotted in at Hooker.

Sporting their new look shirts and shorts, Kingswood took to the field slightly later than planned, due to the late arrival of Spartans and an extremely heavy downpour of rain.

From the opening couple of scrums and rolling mauls, it was clear that Kingswood were going to have the upper hand in the pack, which was going to be useful given the slippery conditions. It only took Kingswood a couple of minutes to get over the Spartans try line, unfortunately, the referee spotted an infringement and Spartans were awarded a scrum on their own 5 metre line, but the early attacking intent was evident from Kingswood.

Shortly after, Winger Lewis Voisey nearly made it over in the corner, but there was an excellent last minute cover tackle to deny him another try this season. Spartans were struggling to get out of their 22, but help came in the form of a free-kick and they were able to clear their lines.

With 14 minutes of the game gone, Spartans had the first real opportunity to get some points on the board when Kingswood were judged to be off-side. No. 10’s kick drifted wide though and the scores remained the same.

Despite the weather conditions, Kingswood’s Backs were causing mayhem with some excellent running moves and quick hands. One such move took Kingswood close to Spartans try-line and eventually Damien Crosswell took a crash ball over the line, but the referee deemed this time the ball was held up and so a 2nd try for Kingswood was disallowed.

Over the next few minutes, Kingswood then had a spate of knock-on’s that cancelled out any hard work that had put together. Worse was then to follow for Kingswood as on 25 minutes, the always dangerous Anthony Davies, was forced to leave the field with a shoulder injury. Nathan Pratt came on in his place.

On the half hour mark, Kingswood then grabbed the first points of the game when Spartans were penalised for holding on. Ben Phillips slotted home a long range conversion and Kingswood led 3-0.

The only real danger to Kingswood’s defence came late on in the first half, when Spartans made it to within 10 metres of the Kingswood line. Kingswood remained solid though and were eventually awarded a penalty for holding on, before gaining an extra 10 metres through some Spartans back chat.

It was a strange first half for Kingswood, despite holding the majority of the possession and a couple of disallowed tries, the penalty from Ben Phillips remained the only points of the half and Kingswood went into the turn around slightly disappointed, but confident of another victory.

Kingswood 3-0 Spartans (Glos)

With just six 2nd half minutes on the clock, an awesome run from Lewis Voisey sliced open the Spartans defence and, despite momentarily losing possession, an excellent Dean Stephens tackle led to Kingswood receiving a penalty for holding on and Ben Phillips slotted home another penalty to double Kingswood’s lead. 6-0.

Joe Jones-Griffiths was then instrumental in another Kingswood attack, almost securing a try from an excellent run from Full-Back, but there was another excellent last minute tackle that forced a knock-on. However, with Kingswood dominating in the Forwards, they turned over possession from the resulting scrum and the ball was spread wide quickly through the hands of the Backs and eventually, the ball landed into the arms of James Willmott on the crash ball and he smashed his way over the line for the first try of the game. Ben Phillips added an excellent conversion and the score was now 13-0.

With the hour mark approaching, a heavily bandaged Joe Jones-Griffiths was once again causing problems for Spartans as he burst up field from a Ben Phillips pass before offloading in contact to Lewis Voisey. The ball was kept alive in the Forwards before the ball was given to fly-half, Dean Stephens. Stephens sold a dummy pass to one defender, before spinning out of the tackle of another, before powering through no less than 4 more attempted tackles and over the line for an excellent try. The conversion from Phillips was missed but Kingswood now looked comfortable at 18-0.

Kingswood then made their first substitution when Stu Wright came on for Nick Coe.

Kingswood were now in full control and Spartans were offering very little, in fact, their only time on the ball was coming from Kingswood’s mistakes.

With 68 minutes of the game now gone, an absolutely cracking run from James Willmott carried Kingswood to within 5 metres of the Spartans line, however Kingswood were penalised for holding on. Incredibly, Spartans took the quick tap and attempted to pass the ball out wide quickly, however the ball was knocked on and Kingswood were awarded a scrum 5 metres out. The Backs ran the ball across the pitch, before receiving a penalty and running the ball back the other way. Steve Trevelyan fed a long pass to Nathan Pratt who held off an attempted challenge and dived over the line, incredibly, the referee deemed the ball was somehow held up once again and Spartans escaped…..until the subsequent scrum.

Kingswood’s Forwards took no prisoners from the resulting scrum, marching Spartans back towards their line. Steve Trevelyan then broke off at No. 8 and powered over the line. The referee couldn’t disagree with that grounding and Kingswood had another try. Phillips just missed a tricky touchline conversion but Kingswood appeared to have the game in the bag. 23-0.

Incredibly, despite the low half time score line, Kingswood could now set their sites on not just a victory, but a bonus point victory at that.

Before the game restarted, Kingswood made another substitution with Mark Oakley coming off and Alex Evans coming on.

With victory in the bag, Kingswood then had to endure a slight Spartans fight back, however, Kingswood remained tight and snuffed out any attacks quickly and in the end, they survived the attacks unscathed.

With the 80 minutes now gone, Kingswood found themselves controlling possession and were attacking Spartans at a furious rate. Spartans were struggling to contain Kingswood’s Forwards, so much so that after a couple of quick tap penalties, Kingswood were just inches from the Spartans try line. Damien Crosswell was agonisingly close, but when Steve Trevelyan picked up the ball from the resulting ruck, he powered over the line with James Willmott in tow, and the referee awarded Kingswood a last gasp, bonus point securing, try. Ben Phillips couldn’t add the extras but as the ball drifted past the post, the referee blew the final whistle, to give Kingswood a 3rd victory in as many weeks. 28-0.

So despite a depleted squad, Kingswood secured yet another victory and their first clean sheet of the season and have cemented 6th place in the league, now 6 points clear of 7th.

Kingswood now face their trickiest encounter of the season, as they go away to table-toppers, Longlevens.

A DVD of this game is available to purchase, and due to the popularity, I can now get the price down to just £2 a copy! Bargain!

Send me a message through the website if you want a copy.

Final Score: Kingswood 28-0 Spartans