Too many penalties cost King's yet again...

We should have known things were not quite going to go to plan when the referee insisted on conducting the coin toss while Captain Kiddle was standing on a bench having his knee strapped. The toss was lost and Portsmouth chose to play against the elements in the first half.
It all started so well with any brief Portsmouth pressure relieved by box kicks from Will Slater or the siege gun boot of Nick Burberry. We looked dangerous with ball in hand and after an early exchange of penalties we scored two good tries, Jonny Kiddle borrowing over from short range and then Guy Tyler wriggling through several tackles to burst through to score. 13 to 3 up and into first half injury time. And then it all went horribly wrong.
With the last play of the half we lost concentration and slipped a couple of first up tackles and allowed Portsmouth to burst through and score. Their kicker, who didn’t miss all day, added the extras and the half time lead was just three.
The sun went in at half time, the temperature dropped and despite the exhortations of Tom Dugarin and Guy Tyler we slipped away as a penalty and two converted tries changed the game and put us 13 to 27 down.
At last we came to life and some good phase play saw Tom Dugarin weave his way over. 20 to 27. One score down. At this point it seemed we had at last got the referee back on board after conceding penalties so often when we got in a good position. However the referee seemed happy to play old school rules and allow tackles that many others would have penalised for being too high. With Portsmouth’s clear physical advantage beginning to take its toll, injuries deprived us of Will Slater and towards the end Jack Denison. The tackles were often followed by penalties against us for holding on when indeed it was the tackler who won the penalty. Sometimes he released but not often.
Another penalty stretched the deficit further and another close range try put us 20 to 37 behind which proved to be the final score. Try as we could we couldn’t score the bonus point try and the game finished with the referee playing advantage to us and when we didn’t score deciding the game was over. Not many heard the advantage over.
It was a difficult week with team changes right through to Saturday morning. The squad we eventually got down to Portsmouth was good and while at some points in the week just getting a team was a relief, the game ended as a disappointment as we could have won. 24 points in 10 minutes around half time cost us the game. Talk of not giving penalties away before the game proved worthless as we were permanently penalised. Tom Dugarin showed his discontent in the post match huddle and spoke many true words. It is up to the players to change, no one else.
A final thanks to those that made the effort, all the players who travelled but especially good to have Marc Sideshow Davies back with the improved and laregr version of himself. Thanks also to Lorcan O’Duffy, Ed O’Callaghan and Ronan Kelly from the 2XV who made up our bench and finally to another regular 2XV player, Neil Williams, who played the whole game including 20 minutes at 9 instead of the injured Will Slater. Two more games to go, sixth place at worst, let’s get two wins and finish in style.
Thanks to Portsmouth for their hospitality, they are a well run club who have turned the corner and will undoubtedly be a top team next season.