Team: Lucan, George, Theo, William, Rylee, Harry, Wilf, Yoshi, Jayden, Christian, Jack, Yoshi, Rocco, Riley, Thomas, Samorree and Ryan

Moving into the last two games of the season, this young Knights team were wanting to finish it on a high. We’ve played Imperial before, and we know they are a well drilled, organised team who are difficult to beat. In the first half Kingswood Knights dominated the Imps with strong rucking, good tackling, fast hands, strong defensive play and passing. This left Imps just off the pace, chasing the ball. The only area of the field they were beating us on was the scrums where they were winning every ball.
Three phases of play saw Wilf pick up a long pass from Yoshi to run round the Imps defence for a wonderful team try to open the game. Harry, Wilf, Jack and Yoshi made surging runs through the Imps defence and then Jayden ripped the ball, ran half the pitch to score a try. This was followed by a surging run down the left wing which saw Harry go over the try line but he was unable to ground the ball so his try was disallowed. Then Imps put pressure on Knights defensive line, but our defence held strong. Knights showed better skill and tactical play than their opponents and with a beautiful cross-field kick and the loose ball picked up by Jayden who ran in for a try. Knights were rampant but Imps heads didn’t go down despite Knights dominance and continued to give us a game. They then built an attack through six phases of play and went over for a try of their own. This helped their confidence, and they started building another attack when the referee blew for half-time.
In the second half with Knights substitutions and players trying out new positions Knights were unable to stop Imps momentum building and they pressured the Knights defence for the majority of the half. There were more unforced errors, knock-ons and loose ball in this half which Imps capitalised on more. They continued to win the majority of the scrums and it was Knights who were now chasing after the ball.
It was great to see Ryan coming on for his first game with Knights and it was a good solid debut so he’ll be a welcome addition to the team. Imps ran in a few tries but from a penalty Jayden carried the ball through three Imps defenders to go over for a Knights try. In the dying moments of the game with both teams drawing Imps pressured the Knights defence to score the winning. Was it a double movement? No, the referee didn’t think so and awarded the try and that’s the way it goes sometimes.
On reflection the two teams were very equal in terms of attacking play. Knights should have closed out the game earlier, but Imps did well to keep their heads up and kept going to the final whistle and won the game with the final play of the match.
As the season comes to close a few things we need to work on in the off season 1). Our fitness – in the second half we looked off the pace and we were unable to crank up the gears when under pressure and this will give us more chance for grabbing the win at the end. 2). Securing a good platform from the ruck – we did well in the first half, but in the second the ball became scrappy and loose which allowed our opponents to get a foot hold in the game and 3). finally scrummaging as we were on the back foot from all the scrums for the whole game but in saying that everyone in the team gave a good performance and by the narrowest margins, we didn’t win the game.
Captain – Riley
Try scorers –Wilf, Jayden x3
Coaches man of the match – Riley
Hitman – Harry
Captain’s men of the match – Christian and Yoshi