Sat 1 Feb 2020
Kingsbridge took revenge against Chard, beating the visitors 39-5 in what turned out to be an easy win over a team only one place behind them in the league. The victory put Kingsbridge firmly in fourth place, one point behind Teignmouth, who have a game in hand. Kings had been given a torrid time in the scrum in the previous encounter but with their first pick front row restored, they managed, after a nervy start, to totally dominate as the game progressed.
Two yellow cards in the first ten minutes left both teams with fourteen, but it was Kingsbridge who recovered the better and, after a series of strong drives from the pack, Lock James Palmer eventually touched down under the posts, with fly half Ben Newman adding the extras. The game ebbed and flowed with no one dominating, but a well-struck penalty from Newman saw Kings edge further ahead. A good piece of back play allowed Chard to cut the deficit to 5 as their fly-half broke tackles and offloaded well to see the visitors score. Kingsbridge scored again on the stroke of half-time when winger Greg Parrot went over for a try from a lineout after he was adjudged to have been the victim of a high tackle, leaving the half-time score at 15-5.
The second half was all Kingsbridge, who played good combative rugby, never letting Chard settle. With the pack now dominant, Chard were constantly on the backfoot and it wasn’t long before the hard working Dan Jarvis was over for the first points of the half. King’s bonus point try came after a fine break from the returning Jack Cope, who sent full back James Trout through under the posts. Kingsbridge allowed a couple more tries, going begging as they lost concentration with badly timed passes and poor hands knocking on. It coincided with Chard’s only period of the game where they looked threatening, but King’s defence held up well and eventually took the game back into Chard’s half, from where, once again, centre George Banfield raced over. Newman converting well into the strong breeze. The final score of the game came after Kings stormed forward and a fine offload from prop Stu Winzer saw replacement Toby Baldry on hand to put through a lovely weighted kick, which he touched down himself, leaving the score 39-5.
A good performance to wipe away the memory of the early season single point defeat.
