Kingsbridge Colts 27,

Ivybridge Colts 20

The old rivals paid a visit to High House in a Colts Merit League fixture and what a great match it was.

Kings came out firing, with great line speed in defence, only for Ivy to put the ball down the backline and score in the corner.

Kings came back into the game immediately with a great touch finder from Ollie Beattie before being held up on the Ivy line. Not to be stopped, Kings followed this up with a line-out catch and drive for Stuart Harris to go over and make it 5-5.

The catch and drive went on to serve Kings well all afternoon and Ivy had no answer to it.

Billy Oram and Chris Canevali put in some superb tackles to stop Ivy attacks, but Kings then proceeded to give away some silly penalties and found Ivy had an extra man in attack with a lack of defensive organisation. A forward pass by Ivy cost them a try.

Kings were now putting in some good defensive work as the Ivy backline was prepared to run at Kings. Eventually an overlap was created which led to another Ivy try to make it 5-10.

Kings came back firing and James Oggles­by scored in the corner on the end of an overlap to make it 10-10. 

Kings were running the line-outs with some ease and the catch and drive was making certain old Kingsbridge veterans watching salivate...

Soon after this the Ivy number eight took off on a run to be hit solidly and legally by Tom Wotton with a tackle Mickey Skinner would've been proud of.

Ivy's eight had to leave the field with two dead legs. Joe Banfield had a solo run into the Ivy 22, then from a line-out and catch and drive Chris Canevali came storming through only to knock on and Ivy cleared the danger with a great kick. The score remained 10 all at half-time.

Ivy came out in the second half looking like they'd upped their game by a couple gears, the 13 in particular had caused trouble all afternoon with great lines of running.

A simple try and conversion by Ivy made it 10-17.

Kings started to fall off of tackles and with a penalty Ivy were now 10-20 up and looking like they'd run away with the game as their 12 went through, but the referee adjudged a knock-on to deny the score.

Kings now started to get back into the game as their pack started to dismantle Ivy's in im­pressive fashion.

The Ivy hooker was sin-binned and Kings took full advantage of the extra man as another catch and drive saw the ball sent wide for Mike Carson to go in at the corner for 15-20.

A series of forward drives ended with Dan Jarvis going over for a try, converted by George Jones, to make it 22-20. Another great counter attack from Kings saw Stuart Harris held short.

Kings now were pegging Ivy back and in the last move of the match Marvin Jones rumbled it up for the ball to be spread wide, allowing Fynn McCoy to score in the corner.

The final score 27-20 to Kings, a great match with both teams contributing with great play. Joint men of the match were Dan Jarvis and Stuart Harris.

Kings' next match is away to Chew Valley Old Boys on Sunday, October 19. Limited seats on the coach are available on a first come first served basis.

Coach time to be confirmed but a 9am start is the guess at the mo­ment.