Kingswood vs Cainscross

Its with trepidation I write this weeks report. Having Stato on the sideline I thought he may take notes and write the report, alas no, so I will try and piece together what I remember.

The 1sts faced Cainscross for the first time this season. With Cainscross sitting last from bottom with only one win, and then only turning up 15mins before kick-off, Kingswood naively thought this would be fairly easy win. Not so.

With centre Paul Allen out with his glass jaw we saw Gareth Pond step up into centre with Lambert and with Kirley returning from injury to take a wing berth there were some changes in the backs. The forwards saw a quite ill Damien Crossell take the field and the return of Stan Bailey at second row.

The game looked like it was going to be a forwards affair, with the pitch and weather looking particularly muddy and wet, we feared the worst when we came out from our huddle and it was p**ssing it down. However, this cleared up before kick-off and the match was under way.

Cainscross dominated the first 20 minutes, mainly due to Kingswoods lackadaisical attacks and defense. It took a stiff ten minutes of defending their own 5m line before we started hitting the rucks and pushing them back. Some stout defense at the edges of the rucks and, notably from the new centre partnership, Cainscross were held off.

The first score of the game came from a penalty kick from Ben Phillips (he's getting good at those), and then from the re-start the ball was spun out to the backs who gained some hard yards. After a series of pick and go's from the forwards, and some fine running yardage by Thomlin, Kingswood got their first try.

After some crash ball up the right wing we found ourselves camped on their 5m line (possibly slightly closer). A call from the scrum half Phillips of 'pick and go' saw not only Stan leave the ball to clear out the ruck, but Damien aswell, it left me with a chance to collect at the back and power my way over for a typical forwards try. Cheers lads. Phillips converted.

That was all for the first half, with the score 10-0 leading into half time.

After some words from Coach Jones and sidelined Captain Ward Kingswood woke up in the 2nd half.

Straight from the kick-off the ball found its way out to Stinchcombe on the wing who crossed in the corner. I believe Phillips missed this one, but right from the re-start Cainscross had a penalty after Mr Stinchcombe believed a Cainscross player kicked him in the head whilst scoring and took offense. Not that it mattered, Cainscross failed to find touch and we cleared our lines.

Kingswood were now looking dangerous when we had the ball, although Cainscross wouldn't let us have it much. Their dominance in the scrums stealing some of our ball.

The next score came from simple hands out wide as Ben Lambert took his first try of the season. Phillips hit the upright with the conversion.

The next try came from the other centre Gareth Pond, when a mis-match out wide allowed him to cut back in and score. Phillips converted.

Cainscross then threw everything and the kitchen sink at Kingswood in the final ten minutes. It seemed as though most of the 50-50 calls were going Cainscross's way and you couldn't help think the ref was trying to even the game up. After the umpteenth scrum on the Kingswood 5m line the ref gave a penalty to Cainscross.

The number 9, who was a right little ball hogger and pain in the arse, took a quick tap and went over in the corner - however - this was shortly after the ref had given a penalty try under the posts for Kingswoods back chat. A simple conversion made the final score 27-7.

Man of Match - Matthew Perriman
Ass of Match - Liam Stinchcombe (for his argument that a penalty try was 8 points not 7)