Three knee injuries scuppered Kingswood’s chances of claiming victory at Spartans this weekend, but the away side fought back from a disastrous start to claim a bonus point.

James Willmott failed to start the fixture and both Paul Allen and Dean Stephens came off after 15 minutes, with all three sustaining knee injuries. With the 10, 12 and 13 triangle demolished, Kingswood were forced into putting a Front Row in the Centre and Flanker on the Wing, couple this with the fact that Kingswood found themselves 25-3 down after about 20 minutes, and it was fair to say that spirits were low.

But then a spirited fight back ensured. Despite playing up the slope in the 1st half, Kingswood’s scrums were dominant and from this came numerous penalties and attacking opportunities. Full-Back Nathan Pratt grabbed Kingswood’s 1st try before a beautifully worked lineout on half time saw Damien Crosswell go over which brought Kingswood back to 25-13 with an extra man after a Spartans player was binned after constant infringements.

In the second half, and with Kingswood now playing down the slope, the scrum became even more devastating, it was just unlucky for Kingswood that the scrums were not 5 metres out, as there would have been a few penalty tries as the Spartans pack were running backwards and scattering all over the place (See the last scrum in the video highlights for a little taster)

Both teams exchanged penalty kicks before Lewis Voisey scored a somewhat fortunate try to bring the score to 28-21. Ben Phillips added the extras but Kingswood ran out of time to grab a equaliser or potential winner, another 5 minutes and this would have been very different.

Despite the turmoil at the beginning and the major reshuffle, this was a sterling performance from everyone on the pitch, especially Geoff Cooke and the 1st team debutant, Will Harris.

A week off now and a chance to ice some injuries in time for the visit of high-flying newcomers, Newent, in two weeks.