Bailey Bags Brace As Kingswood Conquer Cotham

Winger Scott Bailey grabbed a brace of tries as Kingswood kept the pressure on the top 3 with a bonus point victory over visiting Cotham Park.

Scott Bailey, Joe McMullen and Harri Richards crossed the whitewash in what was a comfortable first half for the home side in extremely cold conditions. The visitors then pulled a try back early in the 2nd half as they took full advantage of Kingswood's Roland Gabriel dismissal to the sin-bin.

With Kingswood chasing a 4th try and the bonus point, they then made the strange decision to opt for the 3 points when they awarded a penalty kick in Cotham Park's 22, instead of going for the corner. There was yet more strange decisions to follow as Fly Half, Joe Jones-Griffiths' resulting penalty attempt was charged down by one of the Cotham Park forwards. As Kingswood protested, the referee waved play on, and with all the players stood around in confusion, Kingswood Centre, Nick Coe, picked up the ball that had drifted the wrong side of the uprights to dab the ball down. The referee took a few seconds to think, but then awarded the try to give Kingswood the bonus point they were after.

Scott Bailey then grabbed his 2nd of the afternoon late on which gave Kingswood a resounding victory. Speaking after the game, Assistant Coach, Tom Williams, was pleased with the Kingswood display, but highlighted the need for Kingswood to maintain their discipline. "We were always on top in the game, apart from a 10-15 minute period in the 2nd half when penalties let them back in. Generally though it was a dominant performance in which we finished our chances well".

Next Saturday, Kingswood travel to the Prince of Wales Stadium to play their game in hand against Smiths (Industries). No room for complacency in this fixture though, as Smiths only lost by 1 point against top of the table Spartans this weekend.