Kingswood Overturn Seemingly Unassailable Deficit To Grab Last Gasp Winner

There has been many a classic match played out on the lush green grass of Grimsbury Road (think Tetbury back in 2005/06), but Kingswood fans were treated to an epic encounter this weekend when Kingswood came back from a 8-24 deficit to snatch a 25-24 victory with the last play of the game.

Frustrations were clear after last week’s uninspiring 6-0 defeat away to Southmead, however, spirits were raised by an excellent turn out to training on Tuesday night by the boys, and as a result, Kingswood managed to put out 3 teams for the first time this season.
While the 2’s left for Southmead (again) and the 3’s hosted Frampton Cotterell on the bottom pitch, Kingswood’s 1’s welcomed relatively unknown club, Bredon Star, for their first ever visit to Kingswood. There were lots of pre-match rumours flying around about our visitors, started as a pub team, only 5 years old, etc, but after the first half of rugby, what we DID know is that their wingers were dangerous and they loved running the ball wide on our Twickenham sized pitch.

Kingswood found themselves 3-17 down at half time, with Scrum Half Ben Phillips grabbing the home-sides’ only points of a pretty lacklustre first half.

In the 2nd half, a Ben Phillips try restored a bit of hope for Kingswood, bringing the score back to 8-17, however, it wasn’t long until the away side re-established their formidable lead, scoring under the posts and taking the score to 8-24.

The Kingswood players gathered under the posts and Fly Half Joe Jones-Griffiths provided the team with a well-deserved dressing down. It was also around this time that Kingswood introduced Neil Ward to the fray.

Now whether it was the verbal chastisement, the additional weight in the pack, or a combination of both, but Kingswood suddenly had the bit between their teeth. The intensity grew, the aggression grew, and the opportunities for the opposition winger to get his hands on the ball ceased.

Angry Joe Jones-Griffiths was first to claw some points back for Kingswood, finishing off a lovely move to go under the posts. Joe slotted over the drop kick conversion and Kingswood looked like a new team. 15-24.

Kingswood were now causing Bredon Star all sorts of issues in the set piece and this was allowing the home-side to dictate proceedings. With 74 minutes on the clock, a long passage of play in which Bredon thwarted numerous try scoring opportunities, eventually saw their defence breached, when simple hands saw the ball fed from Neil Ward to Ashley Honeywell, who fell over the line to bring Kingswood within 4 points. The supporters were staggered/delighted that Kingswood had claimed a bonus losing point from a match that seemed well out of their reach……..but they weren’t finished yet.

With time almost up, Kingswood had powered their way down into the opposition 22 before securing a penalty. With the pack dominating, it was clear that a scrum was the only option. Kingswood secured the ball at the back of the scrum and the pack steam-rolled their way to the line, with No. 8 Nick Coe executing some excellent dancing feet to keep the ball at the back. The roar from the Kingswood side-line almost seemed to push the pack on, and when only a few feet remained, Nick Coe picked up the ball and smashed over the line. Despite the conversion attempt just drifting past the posts from out wide, the noise was deafening as the referee blew his final whistle, bringing to an end what was one of the best comebacks in recent history. The away side dropped to their knees, distraught at having let such a huge lead slip.

But for Kingswood, the result moved them up to 10th in the league and out of the dreaded drop zone, however, next week they face a journey away to 2nd place Brockworth, but after this performance, Kingswood have hopefully worked out the key to their success this season.

Final Score: Kingswood 25-24 Bredon Star

Can you remember a better come back at Kingswood RFC within the past 60 years? Let us know about it in the comments box below.

Quote of the Week: “Get up fatty, I’m not done with you yet” – Mark Oakley

Tweet of the Week: “Disappointing day but take nothing away from @kingswoodrfc, your big pack controlled the second half. We can't win without the ball #setpiece” – Bredon Star