Kings On Course For 3rd Place Finish After Defeating Old Cryptians

The penultimate league game of the season saw Kingswood take on Old Cryptians at home in a crunch match for 3rd spot. The last meeting saw Kingswood lose out thanks to two late penalty kicks in a match played in terrible weather conditions. This was not the case this week as it was a glorious day for rugby, albeit slightly windy.

Kingswood welcomed back Ian Kirley after his 4 month absence through injury but were without the services of Paul Bennett and Brad Whiston. It was however one of the strongest sides that Kingswood have fielded for most of the season. The Kingswood bench was strengthened by Dave Vince, James Thorne and Derek James who, with a combined age of 102, stood by ready for action.

Both teams started slowly and it wasn't until the 10th minute that the game saw its first real scoring opportunity when Kingswood's Captain, Paul Allen, sliced open the Old Cryptians defence, unfortunately the good move came to nothing.

Another slow 10 minutes passed and it was clear that both sets of forwards were battling hard to limit attacking opportunities. With 20 minutes on the clock however, Kingswood were penalised for going straight over the top of an Old Cryptians ruck and from the resulting penalty, Old Cryptians No. 10 slotted home the penalty kick and Kingswood found themselves 0-3 down.

Kingswood were penalised two minutes later for offside which gave Old Cryptians a chance to double their lead, luckily for Kingswood the conversion attempt was missed and the scores remained the same.

Kingswood responded well and just after the half hour mark, a rolling maul in Old Cryptians 22 was making good progress towards the try-line but it was quickly pulled down. The referee awarded Kingswood the penalty and Dean Stephens secured the lineout for Kingswood just metres from the line. A well worked lineout move saw Mike Oakley receive the ball at his No. 1 position which caught the Old Cryptians defence off guard and Oakley managed to power his way through an attempted tackle to get the ball down over the line and hand Kingswood the lead. Ben Phillips was unable to add the extra two points but in a game with very few opportunities, Kingswood had a vital lead 5-3

Kingswood should have been in 6 minutes later after a well executed backs move created an overlap out wide, agonisingly the opportunity was wasted and Kingswood had to settle for a slender two point lead going in to half time.

Half Time: Kingswood 5-3 Old Cryptians

Straight from the restart, Kingswood were penalised once again and once again Old Cryptians No. 10 went for the posts but the kick was put wide and Kingswood counted themselves lucky not to be behind. On the plus side, Kingswood were limiting Old Cryptians to penalty kick attempts thanks to their excellent defending, but this would only be valuable if Kingswood could hold on and try to extend their lead to a more comfortable score line.

The missed penalty seemed to be the kick up the rear that Kingswood needed and they restarted the game with real purpose. A couple of quick penalties for Kingswood allowed them to set up camp in Old Cryptians 22 and it was vital that they came away with some points to put them in control. Kingswood were eventually awarded a scrum 5 metres out and Mark McGarrigle took the ball blind from his Number 8 position before releasing the ball to Steve Trevelyan. Trevelyan took the ball into the Cryptians defence and a loud cheer erupted from the sideline as Mark McGarrigle reclaimed the ball before crashing over the line. Ian Kirley took over kicking duties for Kingswood and slotted home a lovely long range effort to extended their lead to 12-3

With Old Cryptians creating very few opportunities and with Kingswood now holding a good lead and a lot of territory, Cryptians knew that penalty kicks would probably not be enough and that they would have to score a try to get back into the game. Kingswood had other ideas though and continue to play a tight forwards game. The frustration for Old Cryptians started to show and they were penalised for offside which Kingswood tapped quickly and ran forward before Old Cryptians were penalised once again for not being back the full 10 metres. Dean Stephens secured a lineout for Kingswood deep in Cryptians 22 and a rolling maul was formed. Cryptians were guilty off ill discipline once again and Kingswood were awarded a 3rd straight penalty in a matter of minutes. Before anyone knew what was happening, Mike Oakley spotted his opportunity and quickly tapped the penalty and ran towards the line. There was no stopping Oakley as he once again powered though a tackle and over the line to extend Kingswood's lead with only 6 minutes gone after their last try. Another excellent conversion from Ian Kirley now saw their score extend to 19-3 and it was difficult to see how Cryptians would come back from such a big margin.

Kingswood were told not to let up in their pursuit for more points from Coach Rich Knight as they lined up for the restart so they set about to capitalise on their momentum. It was Old Cryptians discipline that was still causing them problems though and another penalty to Kingswood just after the hour mark was marched forward 10 metres by the referee and this allowed Kingswood to secure a lineout and eventually a rolling maul in Cryptians half of the pitch. The ball was released to the backs and Ian Kirley moved up from his Full-Back position to cut a lovely line through the Old Cryptians defence to carry Kingswood further down the field. The ball was moved quickly by Scrum Half Ben Phillips and this caught the Cryptians defence napping and Stan Bailey and Mark Oakley exchanged passes before Mark Oakley put in his brother Mike Oakley to leave him with an easy run-in over the line and grab his 3rd try of the game, his 2nd hat-trick in 7 days. Ian Kirley missed the resulting conversion but Kingswood were now out of sight with a 24-3 lead

With the game in the bag for Kingswood they too were caught napping at the restart when the ball was knocked on which gifted Old Cryptians territory and more importantly, a put-in at the scrum. Cryptians moved the ball to the backs quickly and Kingswood allowed No. 13 to weave his way in and out of tackles to cross the line under the posts. No. 10 added the easy two points and Kingswood were reminded just how important it would be to not go to switch off again in the last 10 minutes of the game. 24-10

The last 10 minutes of the game however did not see a lot of rugby. Firstly, two injuries to Old Cryptians players saw more than 6 minutes go out the window before the high tension in the game came to ahead and a minor scuffle erupted in the later stages. The referee decided that enough was enough and ended the game that saw Kingswood deservedly take the two points and leap frog Cryptians into 3rd place in the league.

Sadly the end of the season is nearly upon us and Kingswood take the long journey to Cheltenham next week to play Cheltenham Saracens to hopefully secure 3rd spot in the league for two years running.

Full Time: Kingswood 24-10 Old Cryptians