South West One (West)
Kingsbridge 32
Kingsbridge travelled to Midsomer Norton on an icy cold day and recorded a fine victory, dominating large parts of the game with fast aggressive rugby that resulted in a much-needed 5-32 bonus point win.
The whole team stepped up and this victory saw the hard work that been had put in over the last few weeks rewarded, with captain Ben Glover outstanding in both defence and attack.
The visitors started the scoring in the first minutes with a fine try by Glover after a neat break by Ben Newman who, discovering some fine form, controlled the game well from 10.
It wasn’t all roses for Kings, who were being shunted at every scrum and were on the wrong side of the referee, who was constantly penalising them at the set piece.
However, Kings kept coming back and were awarded a penalty which was converted by George Banfield, who had had to step up to scrum-half as James Trout was off for a knock to the knee.
Again Kings were being pushed back in the scrum and a series of penalties took the home side to their line, where they scored a pushover try from their number eight.
Kingsbridge were further punished by a dubious yellow card as Jon Merrin was caught offside. Kings came back and from a sustained period of pressure they came away with another penalty again the points from Banfield making the half-time score 5-13.
The second half showed the gulf between the teams as Kingsbridge dominated all aspects of the game.
The scrum was transformed with the arrival of Jake Knight in the second row.
Penalties were missed by both sides, but soon the game was taken away from the home side as lock Tom Meatyard took a great line and crashed over for a well-constructed try. Banfield added the extras.
Kingsbridge continued to play at pace stretching the home side. From a now-solid scrum Meatyard, having moved to eight picked up, made good ground and passed on to centre Dave Stevens, who timed a perfect pass to debutant winger Chris Canavalli to score, no conversion.
Kings were then awarded a penalty and from the ensuing line-out they mauled their way to the line, where prop Mike Powell was on hand to make sure Kings came away with all the points.
A fine team performance and much happier journey home.
Kingsbridge A XV were left high and dry without a match on Saturday after Topsham withdrew from their scheduled visit to High House on Friday morning.
This was an exceptionally disappointing outcome for the Blue and Whites, after they had travelled to Topsham earlier in the season with only 12 players to honour the Merit Table fixture.
Kingsbridge Colts narrowly lost out 15-10 at Exeter in the Devon Colts Cup Merit Table.
This week sees Kingsbridge first XV entertain Matson in the league at High House with kick-off at 2.30pm.
Kingsbridge A XV travel to face Crediton in the Merit Table while the Colts face the long journey to face Barnstaple Colts.