It was an early start as a hopeful Kingswood Knights U12’s team travelled to Cheddar for their final festival as a mini’s a team and of the season. Everyone, around the world, wanted this young Knights team to finish on a high and top the season with a great festival display. The 2022/23 season has been very successful seeing lots of Knights victories and the team has come on leaps and bounds. Festivals have been a bit of an enigma for the team to win matches, gain confidence and get a good winning streak. Their last game on tour saw them win their final match against Bideford in a nail-biting game where Knights managed to score in the dying minutes of the match to win the game. If they showed this spirit in the Cheddar Festival there would be no stopping them.

Unusually, we had a full squad of 14 players meaning we had substitutes for fresh pairs of legs and to help with any injuries, as well as our three celebrated coaches together again, things were looking up. So, to Cheddar we go! Braving a long que of cars to get into the festival, and supporting the best array of silly hats it looked like a great start. But then the omens changed, some teams hadn’t turned up and the programme coined by Jade “the book of lies” became defunct (and it cost us four quid each!!) and with less teams to play, you would have thought the rotation between matches would be quicker but this was not to be, frustrating players and parents alike but let’s get on with the report.

Kingswwod Knights – 10 vs Nailsea and Backwell – 15

With some of the team stuck in the traffic to get into the festival we started with eleven players waiting for Joshua, Charlie and George to arrive. But this didn’t seem to affect the team as we’ve played Nailsea and Backwell before and beaten them, so spirits were high coming into the game but never be deceived by your opponents as they were keen for revenge from their defeat.

Knights started brightly and the first half there wasn’t anything between the two sides but Nailsea just inching ahead with a try. Wilf, Rocco and Lucan made some good tackles while darting runs from Yoshi and Jayden while Samoree was in quickly for the rucks. Knights were forcing themselves back into the game. In the second half Knights lost concentration, didn’t make their first tackles and Nailsea ran in two successive tries. Then the team suddenly clicked together and they put in an excellent four minutes of rugby. Harry and Riley M led the charge with good rucking, quick ball and a drive through their defensive line which saw Yoshi run in for a try. Harry then put Nailsea under pressure from our kick off and a couple of good tackles later saw Riley M off load to Jayden for a try. Momentum had swung Kingswood way and they were now dominating the Nailsea team but with only six mins a half the ref blew the final whistle and Nailsea won the game.

What let the team down in this match was the number of handling errors in the first half. We dropped the ball on a few occasions when we were attacking which stopped our attack, lost our momentum and gave the opposition attacking advantage which they used well. Two minutes of losing concentration and not committing and making those crucial first tackles also cost us the match. Tackling is such an important skill in rugby and the whole team needs to be committed to making their tackles. Practicing in the winter on Astro means not all the team has the same confidence and this is something the players need to work on over the summer months.

Yoshi – 1

Jayden – 1

Lucan Captain

Winscombe – 20 vs Kingswood Knights 5

Now we knew this was going to be a tough contest as we know that Winscombe has a reputation for being a well organised team and Kingswood gave a great display despite having to wait over an hour and half between matches and waiting for a referee to join the game. Winscombe didn’t mess around stamping their authority on the match and scoring a try literally straight from the kick off. But fair play to the team, no heads went down and they bounced straight back. Riley K, Samoree, Riley M and Harry took up the mantle to fight back. Then Charlie did a storming break through their defensive line with Jayden on his shoulder so he could pick up the ball when Charlie was tackled and go over for the try – great supporting play. Then it was really tight in the midfield where George, Yoshi and Wilf harried their attack making tackles and ripping the ball. The game was evenly poised at half time.

In the second half Winscombe did two things: they upped their intensity and they stretched our defence by passing it along their lines giving them much more width and keeping the ball out of the midfield where we were more than equal to them. By doing this they overwhelmed our defensive line and ran in a few tries. From Knights there were a few great individual performances where tackles or breaks through their defence were made. When someone broke through their defensive line from our team, our support was not on their shoulder or we were not committed to the ruck which let Winscombe win our ball and then press the attack. Also when we defended the opposition we didn’t come up and press as a line making it easy for them to pass it along their line and break through our defence, something else for us to work on in training. Giving away possession and having to defend is a tiring business and Winscombe capitalised on our mistakes. Most notable was Yoshi ripping the ball as a Winscombe player went down for a try, everyone thought he had scored and they cheered but Yoshi came out with the ball and ran it out from our try line – good work., try saving rip and never say die spirit.

Jayden – 1

Lucan Captain

Kingswood Knights – 0 vs Llanishen – 40

It’s important to note that when we have been beaten like this before the moral of the team has completely collapsed and we have looked a poor team but not on this occasion, a few of the players continued to give their all , show their leadership qualities and make important tackles but it’s a team game so everyone needs to play their part and commit themselves to the game, to the team. Whats disappointing is knowing that the team can play much better than this but you never gave up and kept going until the final whistle and carried on even though the festival rules said after 30 – 0 the game should finish – ah, the book of lies again!

One key observation from this match is when the ball is kicked off whoever it is coming too needs to move towards it, call for it and make sure it is theirs. Show your confidence and stamp your authority on to the ball. A number of times we were watching the ball, not competing for it and with high kicks into the wind the ball hung in the air and they would pressure, compete and win possession when it should have been ours which in turn put us under pressure straight from the kick off. Support is also key making sure you are supporting the catcher, forming the ruck and creating a secure platform to launch an attack.

William Captain

What was nice to see between the matches was the camaraderie between the players and how they are growing, in height as well as with their friendships with each other and as a supportive, well disciplined team. Also a massive thanks to the parents for your dedication, bringing the lads each week in rain and shine and supporting them to do their best. And one final other thing about the day was, at least it wasn’t raining!!

We all decided as a team to leave before the next game (waiting over an hour was a bit ridiculous and we were losing our mojo) and there might have been another game afterwards meaning we would finish in the dark!! Ummm – no thanks. What looked like a promising organised festival turned into knights’ civil disobedience and we left! We didn’t even have time to pick a man of the match or get our medals. This isn’t the finish we wanted for the season so we are hoping we can get in one more match to show what the Knights team can really do and so we can all have a well earned party.