Tribute Western Counties West

Kingsbridge 25,

KINGSBRIDGE welcomed the new Western Counties (West) league leaders to High House on Saturday for what was likely to be one of their toughest challenges of the league campaign to date.

These two teams had battled out a tense 22-22 draw back at the start of November and this game turned out to be just as much of a nail-biter.

The first half was not one that the hosts would want to dwell on as they were outplayed in most aspects of their game.

Kingsbridge were unable to retain any significant possession and lost a number of line-outs in strong attacking positions.

This allowed the visitors to quickly turn defence into attack and put Kingsbridge on the back foot.

Teignmouth opened the scoring in the 14th minute as the Kingsbridge defence was tied in and the visitors exploited the space on the overlap for the game's first try.

Honours were even for the next 15 minutes and the hosts then reduced the deficit with a penalty from centre Ashley Treeby to make it 3-5.

On 26 minutes the hosts were caught out again as a break into the Kings' 22 from the fringes of a maul saw possession set up 10 yards from the Kingsbridge line and a huge overlap was exploited for Teignmouth to run in their second try. The conversion was added to take them clear at 3-12.

Things however got worse for the hosts before the break as the visitors pounced on a loose pass, while Kingsbridge were poised to attack, to race 50 yards to score in the corner. The conversion was added to give Teignmouth a commanding 3-19 lead which they carried into the interval.

To say that Kingsbridge had it all to do in the second half would be an understatement. However, the team talk must have worked wonders as the hosts forced their way back into the game in the space of 15 stunning minutes of the restart.

Treeby kicked off the comeback by adding his second penalty to reduce the deficit to 6-19 before a rolling maul in the Teignmouth 22 set up possession just short of the visitor's line and a neat inside pass from scrum-half Tristan Couch saw flanker Matt Hamilton crash over from five yards. Treeby's excellent conversion from wide out took the score to 13-19.

At this point Kings were fully in the ascendancy and within three minutes they had powered their way into an unexpected lead.

A Kingsbridge clearance from their own 22 saw the catcher caught in possession and his loose back pass was seized upon by lock Sean Woodland, who tore away to score from just inside the Teignmouth half. Again Treeby converted and Kingsbridge held the narrowest of leads at 20-19.

Kingsbridge went on to extend their lead shortly after as a neat kick into open space from Couch saw the visitors forced into taking the ball into touch under pressure near their own line.

From the resulting line-out Kingsbridge took the ball and drove the visitors back over the try line through Hamilton to lead 25-19. Teignmouth responded with a try of their own, wide out, with 10 left, but the conversion went narrowly wide and the hosts still held a narrow lead at 25-24.

A grandstand finish was set up as play switched from end to end during the closing stages and the visitors nearly stole the points right at the end but were forced into touch just shy of the try line.

This was an excellent win for the hosts that keeps them well up with the teams at the top of the table and also with matches in hand to be played over the coming weeks.  

Squad – Banfield, Trout, Glover (Capt), Treeby, Chapman, Newman, Couch, James, Westlake, Powell, Woodland, Jones, D Barlow, Hamilton, Cope, Gibbens, M Barlow, Putt.

Pizza Planet man-of-the-match – James Westlake.