Rugged Defence Forces Kenilworth to Go South

In front of the largest crowd for some time, Kenilworth visited South Leicester's Welford Road ground on a warm sunny day with an obvious desire to take the game to the hosts.They can out of the blocks with a fierce determination and could have been six points clear after five minutes had Russell Clarke converted two long range penalties. Further misfortune followed when centre James Hersey was forced to retire with a leg injury.
After absorbig further punishment, especially at the scrum and lineout and the loss of Glyn Devaney to injury, South factually woke up and put together their first series of concerted attacks. Kenilworth went off their feet at the ruck, Mark Lord stroked the penalty kick between the posts and South took a 3-0 lead against the run of play.
South were getting into the game now, and some fine interaction bwtween the pack with Rob Sands, Mike March and Chris Bale all prominent. In the 30th minute, South moved the ball out of defence, transferring the ball to Nick Griffin who surged along the right hand touch line, beating defenders at will with a combination of several hand-offs, a bout of juggling and a final burst of pace to cross the line. With Mark Lord receiving treatment, Richard Ife stood in for the kick but it was missed.
Nearing half time,Kenilworth's Tak Norton was yellow carded for foul play, Mark Lord fell short with the penalty but Kenilworth were forced to take the ball back over their own line due to the pressure of the South outside backs. Unfortunately it came to nothing as the visiting number 8 responded fiercely and the ball was cleared.

Half time South 8 Kenilworth 0

South came out a different beast after another assertive team talk from Head Coach Dosser Smith. A series of concerted forward drives with Jim Matthews, Andy Harris and Sam Badham all involved, leading to a Mark Lord outside break feeding Rich Ife who delivered the scoring pass to Matt Thomas who out paced the defence to go over left of the posts. Mark Lord added the conversion to take the score to 15 - 0.
By the hour mark South were in the ascendancy in all facets of the game as Kenilworth heads went down, a yellow card was awarded to their replacement and Lord added the penalty kick to put South 18- 0 in front.
South had introduced Ash Stevens, John Hemsley and Dom Green to provide fresh legs on a hot day but they were all caught unawares as Kenilworth took a quick penalty to score what turned out to be their only try, Luke Brown touching down and Clarke adding the conversion to take the score to 18 - 7.
South were stung into action directly from the kick off with Mike March doing the running to off load to Rich Ife who scored to the right of the posts. Lord added the extras to take the final score to South 25 Kenilworth 7.
Although South had dominated the second halfboth in possession and scoring opportunities, it was the side's defence throughout, but notably in the first half, which ultimately won the game.

Man of the match: Rob Sands

South: Griffin, Devaney, Thomas, Ife, Martin, Lord, McFedries, Bayley, Harris, Jones, Badham, Matthews, March, Sands, Bale. Reps Stevens, Hemsley, Green.

Match report:Phil Lord