Tribute Western Counties West
Crediton 17,
Kingsbridge 22
Kingsbridge stuttered to a narrow victory away at newly promoted Crediton on Saturday but maintained their unbeaten start to the season and remain top of the table.
The first half was littered with mistakes from both sides and was not helped by the constant whistle of the referee, who never allowed play to flow.
Kings were guilty of some error-strewn passages of play and only the constant clearing up of the back row and in particular Matt Hamilton kept the momentum going to take the first score of the game, with Greg Parrot going over in the corner after fine blindside break involving Cope and Burner. Conversion missed.
With penalties being exchanged constantly, both sides struggled to gain any real momentum. Crediton had some success and battered away at the line, but the Kings defence held up well until a series of missed tackles allowed Crediton’s fly-half to walk through for a try which was duly converted for a half-time score of 7-5 to Crediton.
The second half saw Kings back to somewhere near the form that has taken them to the top of the table.
The forwards started to make real inroads into the Crediton scrum, which was under pressure giving away penalties until the referee had had enough and awarded a penalty try to Kings.
Treeby added the extras to make the score 7-12.
Kings now stepped up the pace and soon scored a third try, Greg Parrot bagging his second,after some fine handling put him over wide out. The difficult conversion was missed.
Just as the game seemed to be heading for a comfortable win for the visitors, some sloppy passing resulted in an interception and Crediton ran the length of the field to score a converted try, making the score 14-17.
With the pressure now back on the visitors, a dynamic training ground move between Matt Barlow and Matt Hamilton saw Hamilton break through the Crediton defence and after some fine interplay Hamilton was on hand to score the bonus-point try. The extras were missed.
Crediton put themselves within a try after they were awarded yet another penalty. Kings could and should have put the game to bed, nearly scoring again but being pulled back for a borderline decision of a forward pass.
With the referee still handing out penalties, the game finished 17-22. A win for Kings, but a far less convincing one than of recent.
This weekend sees Kingsbridge again with a blank weekend due to the RFU scheduling of fixtures during the World Cup.
Kingsbridge A XV entertain local rivals Ivybridge at High House on Saturday with kick off at 3pm while the Colts play on Sunday this weekend when they entertain Bridgwater and Albion in the second round of the National Colts Cup.