South late bonus point comeback nearly rocks Kenilworth.

South’s topsy turvy season goes on as the side shorn of Max Castrgiovanni, Nick Childs, Mark Bayley and Gaz Nicholson from last week due to injury and work commitments were narrowly beaten at a more than windy Glasshouse Lane.

The first half was abject in the extreme as South were outfought, out-thought and run ragged as Kenilworth scored three tries with only a Mark Lord penalty and a Gaz Jones sin-binning to show for their limited efforts. The galling thing was that we played with the wind, scored first and then proceeded to make Kenilworth look good with some schoolboy howlers gifting them possession and try scoring opportunities which they accepted with glee!

The comparison with the Hereford away fixture was uncanny as it wasn’t until after the hour mark that South awoke from their slumbers and put together something approaching the standard of play expected by the South faithful.
South actually took the second half 12 points to 5 with two excellent tries from Chris Bale and Wes Cartwright, the first converted into the gale by Lord. The South defence stepped up a gear and kept the Kenilworth side quiet while gradually working to get back into the game. The rolling maul appeared and was responsible for both tries shocking Kenilworth who had no answer. If only that approach had been adopted earlier, or the game was extended by 10 minutes then South would have been in with a chance of gaining a positive result.
Once the home loose forwards had been sucked in trying to stop the maul then gaps appeared outside which Lord and the ever more influential Rich Lang ran great lines to open up the Kenilworth defence. The game got a little niggly at that stage as the Kenilworth backs resorted to some underhand tactics to try and stem the flow – perhaps the home captain regretted getting involved as he finished the game with a cracking black eye!

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be and the home side hung on for victory although South got within 7 points for a losing bonus point (unlike Hereford)

Team: Devaney (Martin), Jordan, Lang, Yeow, Cartwright, Lord, McFedries, C Bale, C Mark, March, S Bale, Antill, King (R Mark), Green, Jones.

Man of the Match: “One bomb” Ben Antill who went about his business in a quiet, hard and effective manner which some others need to emulate!