Sat 5 Oct 2019
Kingsbridge got their season back on track with an impressive win against high-flying Bideford. Back on home turf, Kings dominated for long periods of the game and were only under pressure in the second half, when Bideford mounted a series of attacks. They were kept out by some stoic defence, led by James Trout, who had his best game at full back for some time, safe under the ball and making at least 3 try-saving tackles. The pack, restored to full strength, bossed the game in both the scrum and lineout. Even the loss of the influential Matt Allen to a cut eye, but ably replaced by Scott Lowry, didn’t stop them from a really powerful showing.
Kingsbridge started the first half impressively but couldn’t make their possession count until 20 minutes into the game, when a penalty took them deep into the Bideford half. From the lineout they drove strongly to put hooker Jake Vincent over, fly half Ben Newman converted well from wide.
Kingsbridge kept the pressure on, but poor decision making with the ball in-hand saw two clear overlaps ignored. Finally, Kings dominance paid off with a replica of the first score, this time Ali Hamilton over in the corner and again Newman added the extras. Bideford started to turn up the heat late in the half but were forced back time and time again, leaving the home side leading 14-0 at half time.
The second half started with Kingsbridge on the attack again, but failed to get the score moving, not least for falling foul of the referee and giving away too many penalties. A fine break out by winger Greg Parrot saw them close in on the line, only for Bideford to illegally stop them. Newman converted the ensuing penalty.
Bideford ramped up the pressure on Kingsbridge for a sustained period but the home defence stood firm. Things didn’t get any better when centre George Banfield was harshly sin-binned for a deliberate knock on, leaving Kingsbridge to play out the last 10 minutes with 14 men. It didn’t seem to matter when they were taken deep into Bideford’s half by a fine touchline kick from Newman. From the resulting lineout, Dan Jarvis, who was outstanding all game, soared high with a great take and the forwards drove on, putting skipper Vincent over for his second try. The conversion was missed.
Deep into injury time, with Bideford still trying to get on the scoreboard, Burner intercepted on his own 22 and sprinted clear to score, Newman converted again to take the final score to 29-0
This was a really strong performance from Kingsbridge, keeping Bideford pointless and securing a bonus point win. A good all-round team effort, which hopefully will keep confidence high for their away fixture at Chard on Saturday. Kingsbridge A XV have no Merit Table fixture this weekend whilst the Colts travel to face Teignmouth Colts.
Please enter your page detail here. This can be HTML or text. To edit click the first menu icon on the small HTML menu that appears when you click on this text. Please use the elements on the right if you wish to construct a richer page content with headers, images and layout grids.
