KXS 1st XV (12) v Barking (20)

"On a wet and cold day KXS 1st xv played their first ever competitive league game against Barking RFC.

The game was played in constant rain and a chilly wind which literally caught the KXS cold and off their guard as they slipped behind by two very early tries that were unconverted by Barking.

KXS played an impressive and powerful game then in the forwards, with wave after wave of driving play and Barking were not up to this physically and were constantly driven back.

Although there was little reward as there was to many knock-ons or final dropped passes that stopped these pressure being converted into points.

With the game approaching the final minutes of the half this forward dominance paid in points as after several waves of driving play the skipper Birch powered his way over the line taking a couple of Barking players with him to register the first points of the day. Although the conversion was missed KXS soon worked their way back to the Barking line and after a well executed catch drive Snell scored the second try of the day this time it was converted.

The second half was much like the first with KXS forward dominance against a Barking team that wanted to move the ball wide. Despite there being a yellow card given to Barking, the KXS were unable to capitalize on this numerical advantage, and there was no further score until the final 5 minutes. With a knock on missed by the referee and the Barking centre gathering the ball from the floor to race in untouched making the score 15 - 12.

After this score KXS had to chase the game to get any score that would take them ahead again as they had been for the majority of the game, but unfortunately fell for the sucker punch when a driving maul went over for Barking to seal the win 20 - 12.

Although this was a very disappointing result and possibly undeserved, there are improvements that are showing and we can take some comfort in the 3 losses we have had only being lost by 8, 9 and 8 points. We are not far off and we will get our slice of luck in later rounds of that I am sure."

Dean Cutting, Director of Rugby