Tribute Western Counties West

Penryn 3

KINGSBRIDGE continued their excellent start to the season with victory over Cornish side Penryn at High House on Saturday.

Their fourth league victory of the new campaign sees them remain unbeaten in league matches so far this year and up to second in the revised WCW league table.

With the club hosting its annual past players' day at the same time, it gave the players of today the chance to show those Blue and White players from yesteryear that rugby at Kingsbridge is in a very good state of health.

The hosts opened the scoring on 16 minutes as the visitors were penalised for a scrum infringement and Kings full-back George Banfield stepped up to slot over the three points.

On 28 minutes the home side extended their lead as a Penryn attack near half way on the lower touchline saw the visitors attempt to chip the ball through for their winger to run on to.

However, the kick was charged down by Kings' fly-half Ben Newman, who collected the loose ball and raced 50 yards along the touchline to score in the corner and take Kingsbridge into an 8-0 lead, which they held until the half time interval.

At the start of the second half, Kingsbridge crossed over for their second try of the game as a forward break from the half way line saw the ball moved out wide for replacement scrum-half Tristan Couch to race in along the top touchline to score in the corner.

Full-back Banfield added an excellent conversion from wide out to take Kingsbridge clear at 15-0.

Throughout the game the hosts' defence remained resolute – Penryn are no mugs and were not third in the league table for no reason.

However, defence is one area that Kingsbridge have worked very hard on this summer and early season and the points conceded so far this year show that the hard work put in so far is paying dividends.

Mid way through the second half the hosts extended their lead still further as they crossed over for try number three.

A scrum on the halfway line saw number eight Jack Cope pick up from the base and show a piece of individual brilliance to baffle the Penryn defence before sidestepping the full-back and crossing over to score under the posts. The Banfield conversion saw Kingsbridge pull away to 22-0.

In the dying minutes a Penryn attack on the Kingsbridge 22 saw the visitors take the unusual step of dropping a goal to reduce the score deficit to 22-3, which remained the score line until the final whistle.

The Pizza Planet man-of-the-match was Mike Powell.

This week sees Kingsbridge travel to face St Ives in the league while the A XV will be entertaining Crediton IIs in the Devon Merit Table at High House.

Kingsbridge Colts have no match this weekend after receiving a bye in the first round of the National Colts Cup.