U14's Kick Off With A Narrow Win

Before that an entertaining game saw Birkenshaw take the lead a little against the run of play at that time. Noah Smerdon & Noah Thomis got their seasons underway with a try saving tackle early, which Noah Smerdon immediately backed up with bundling his opposite number in to touch on the first tackle. KXP replied with an aggressive drive for the line from Mackenzie Fielden with Louis Inman adding the extras.

Birkenshaw found their rhythm and Noah Smerdon found himself with too much thinking time whilst waiting for a high bomb to land. The spilled ball was picked up neatly and KXP were behind again. Just before half time KXP were in more trouble as the Birkenshaw Stand Off found a huge gap in the defensive line to score with ease. The half time whistle was welcomed by Waddy and Dave with the score 6-18.

It was now KXP's turn to find their rhythm and a quality ball from Louis Inman to Jack Marshall saw KXP reduce the arrears, before William Davidson and Louis Inman combined to put Jack over for his second shortly afterwards.

At 18 all a little niggle crept in to the game and the young referee needed eyes in the back of his head. It wasn't long before he had the perfect view of a scuffle and with punches thrown a red card apiece was shown with Jasper Taylor off for an early bath for the home team. That should have been the end of it but with the Birkenshaw coaches struggling to control their players, and after a period of heavy abuse the referee had no option but to use his Cards further. A second Red card was issued to a Birkenshaw player for descent, followed by a further yellow card. A yellow card was issued to Mackenzie Fielden for sarcastically cheering the final Birkenshaw sin bin!

With five players off the pitch the field immediately got much wider and with only a couple of minutes to go Louis Inman threw a long pass out to Henry Burton-Wilson and with no one in front of him he went the length of the field for a debut try. The lads mobbed him and in keeping their composure they had come up with what looked like the final try of the game.

With the opposition players arguing amongst themselves there was time for KXP to march straight back up field in the final set of the game which resulted in Louis Inman strolling through a shambolic defence with ease. He added his own conversion and the match ended with a 28-18 home win.

Handshakes by all of the players followed, however it was a long walk back to the changing room for the referee who had to take an unfortunate route past a large away crowd.

The final mention goes to Bradley Hodgson who made his debut today with some strong running up the middle. Welcome to KXP Bradley and Henry.