After last weekends unfortunate opening day defeat at the hands of Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood had a chance to get straight back on the horse as they welcomed Gloucester Old Boys to Grimsbury Road.

With the lumpy Ryan England, Daniel Hawkins, Alex Green, Neil Ward, Mark Oakley & Jordan Wood all unavailable, the ever reliable Stan Bailey was called up from the 2’s as he partnered Dave Tomlin in the 2nd row. Matthew Stone, Paul Ford and Damien Crosswell took up position in the front row and Nick Coe, Josh Smith and Alex Evans completed the set.

In the Backs, David Jones started at Scrum Half, ably supported by Chris Rhodes at 10. Dean Stephens and Rob Ford made up the Centre pairing, and Conor Lambert, Jake Saunders and Joe Jones-Griffiths made up the back three.

Completing the squad were Ian Kirley, Dan Colton and Roland Gabriel.

The home-side made a bright start to the game and were on the scoreboard within 10 minutes when Chris Rhodes slotted home a penalty kick from in-front of the posts. 3-0.

Once Kingswood had taken the lead, they seemed to come off the gas and, despite a few running breaks, there was a distinct lack of fire and aggression that had caused Old Reds so much trouble in pre-season. With Kingswood inviting pressure, Gloucester Old Boys capitalised with some devastating rolling mauls that kept Kingswood pinned back. With Kingswood unable to clear their lines effectively, the inevitable finally happened.

Kingswood were given the put in at a scrum deep within their 22 and opted to try and gain some hard yards by running the ball clear with Rob Ford. Ford smashed into the opposition defence, but an attempted offload from the floor was spilt and a speculative kick from Gloucester bounced into the Kingswood try area. The Gloucester Fly Half and Kingswood Captain, Nick Coe, both dove for the ball, but the referee deemed that Gloucester had got to it first and the try was awarded. The extras were added and Kingswood suddenly found themselves trailing by 3-7.

The remainder of the half was a tussle between the 2 teams, but then, just before half time, a Gloucester Old Boys lineout in Kingswood’s 22 was driven back by the home-team after a ferocious hit, and after some competitive rucking, Kingswood stole possession and got the ball clear. More importantly though the fire, passion and noise was reignited back in the team. It was too late for a first half fight back, but Kingswood went into the break with their tails up.

Half Time: Kingswood 3 – 7 Gloucester Old Boys

Kingswood started brightly in the 2nd half, with Dan Colton causing the away team’s defence some real issues with some cutting running lines that had them on the back foot. With a little under 10 minutes of the 2nd half gone, Kingswood continued to exert pressure on Gloucester and eventually they were rewarded with a penalty, dead centre, about 7 metres out. Whilst Kingswood pondered whether to go for the corner or for the posts, Scrum Half David Jones took a quick tap and powered under the posts to grab Kingswood’s 1st try of the game. Chris Rhodes added the simple conversion and Kingswood were back in front. 10-7.

It was clear that Gloucester Old Boys powerful pack were beginning to tire as Kingswood’s running game become more and more prevalent. With 71 minutes on the clock, a first phase move from a Kingswood scrum saw danger man Dan Colton slice open the defence once again and he burst through into the opposition 22. With the Full Back approaching, Colton fed the ball outside him to Man of the Match, Alex Evans, who ran unchallenged under the posts to grab Kingswood’s 2nd try. Chris Rhodes had an unfortunate slip on the run up to the conversion and put the kick wide, but with full time rapidly approaching, Kingswood had stretched their lead to over a converted try. 15-7.

With the remainder of the game rapidly disappearing, it was Gloucester Old Boys who had the final chance of the game when they were awarded a penalty kick right in front of the posts. Opting to go for the 3 points to try and claim a losing bonus point, Gloucester strangely had a shortage of players willing to take the kick. Eventually No. 7 stepped up, but spooned the kick wide, and the referee brought the game to an end which saw Kingswood claim their first league win of the season.

By no means an outstanding performance from Kingswood, but if they can just recapture their preseason form by increasing their levels of fire and physicality, whilst watching their discipline, then the results will start to speak for themselves.

Next week Kingswood face an away trip to Ashley Down…

Final Score: Kingswood 15 – 7 Gloucester Old Boys