It’s been a long wait, but Kingswood RFC finally got the 2019/20 season underway with an evening trials match against Bristol Harlequins. Kingswood headed into the game with a good block of training sessions under their belts. Numbers at training have been the best in recent years, in-particular on Tuesday’s, where the club has seen 40+ players in attendance. This continued into the trials game, as despite it being an early 7pm mid-week kick off, the Coaches and Captains had a squad of 35 players to choose from.

With a rotating squad over 4 x 20-minute games, Kingswood impressed in the first quarter against last season’s Somerset Prem opposition. The scrum was dominant, and Mark Oakley grabbed the only try as Kingswood battled well to finish the quarter at 5-5. As the squads on both teams were rotated throughout the 3 remaining matches, the games started to favour the opposition. Kingswood battled resolutely though to the final whistle though, with some fantastic player performances on show.

Despite the final result, Club Captain, Chris Finn, was more than happy with what he had seen. “Our focus of this game was to put into practise some of the new skills that Derek Golding has been coaching us, allowing us to modernise our game. There were lots of positives to take away from that game. Our scrum dominated at times, our game management was much improved, and we were able to put phases together and built some continuity”

But it wasn’t just on the pitch that Kingswood impressed, as supporters of Kingswood RFC flocked to the game to cheer on the players, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the Captain. “It was great to see so many people on the side-line supporting us. It really does create an atmosphere for the players and gave us an extra boost that we needed at times”

For the team that finished bottom of Gloucester 3 South last season, Captain Finn believes there is a real change in player confidence. “There’s a real buzz about the club at the moment and I can’t wait for our next fixture against Bristol Barbarians on the 31st August”