Kingswood Pick Up First Points Of The Season With Excellent Win Over Old Richians

A brilliant 5 minute spell near the end of the first half in which Kingswood grabbed 2 tries, ultimately led to the home side grabbing their first win of the season. Both teams exchanged penalties early in the game, but it was Kingswood that dominated the remainder of the first half.

After Ben Phillips put Kingswood in the lead and the torrential rain had passed, it looked for all the world that Jake Saunders was going to grab Kingswood’s first try when he took a pass from Dean Stephens a few metres from the Richians’ try-line, however, he took the pass standing still and Old Richians were able to scramble across to bundle Saunders into touch. From the resulting lineout, you could hear the determination to keep the away side pinned in their 22. With the ball secured and fed back to the Richians’ Fly-Half, a wall of blue forwards flew towards him. Sensing that the kick would be charged down on his own try-line, the No. 10 tried a speculative pass back inside to his Inside-Centre. The ball was spilt and Kingswood’s young outside centre, Dan Colton, snapped up the loose ball and drove over the line for Kingswood’s first try of the game. Ben Phillips added the extra 2 points and Kingswood were 10-3 to the good.

With just 5 minutes gone since Colton’s try, Kingswood had worked their way back down into Richians’ territory after a succession of great scrums and penalties. A Kingswood lineout inside the 22 saw a clever 5 man lineout secure possession and the ball was spun out to the backs. Not required in the lineout, the ball fell to Josh Smith, who smashed his way through some attempted tackles to get the ball down right near the uprights to grab Kingswood’s 2nd try. Ben Phillips added another conversion and Kingswood were looking comfortable at 20-3.

The 2nd half was a slightly different affair as Kingswood’s penalty count sky-rocketed and they placed themselves under a lot more pressure. With Richians deep in the home-sides half, Kingswood’s defence showed fantastic strength and determination to hold off the advances of the away side on 3 separate occasions before turning the ball over. Richians’ supporters were aggrieved, perhaps rightly, that no cards were shown during the period of pressure, but Kingswood had made it through a tricky period as a unit.
Kingswood remained under the cosh slightly as the penalties continued to go against them, and right on the final whistle, Richians managed to secure themselves a losing bonus point and frustratingly keep themselves ahead of Kingswood in the table by just that 1 point.

However, this was a small annoyance as more importantly, Kingswood had not only put on a great performance, but they showed that with the squad they have, they are more than capable of getting themselves out of trouble. Making Grimsbury Road a fortress again will clearly be a target for this season.

A cracking game and a fantastic team performance in which Josh Smith and Sam Maddison won the Men of the Match awards.

Next week it's a cracking local derby as Kingswood travel to Southmead. It's a winnable fixture guys, get to training this week and lets prepare to make it 2 wins on the bounce.

Final Score: Kingswood 20-13 Old Richians