Old Yardleians 30, Kidderminster Carolians 10

A MUCH-CHANGED Kidderminster Carolians side produced a disjointed performance which saw them slump to a disappointing defeat against Yardleians.

KCs paid the price for a host of mistakes in the first half as they conceded three tries.

Debutant KCs colt Alfie Smith, playing at blindside flanker, made an immediate impact with a crunching tackle at the very first ruck.

But it was the home side who made the early running and they opened the scoring with a converted try early on.

Kidderminster were beginning to edge their way into the game but when an intended kick by player coach Andy McLellan only found the arms of Yardleians’ No 12 inside his own half the centre had just enough gas to outrun his pursuers and score under the posts.

The fullback’s simple conversion doubled the host’s advantage.

Carolians produced a series of errors as the home team piled on the pressure.

It took a good tackle by fullback Alex Sparks to prevent another try.

After again missing a penalty to touch, Carolians were living dangerously and 15 minutes before the break they fell further behind when Yardleians added a penalty.

Five minutes later another high tackle on McLellan in front of the posts gave skipper Chris Pinner the chance to at last get KCs on the board.

But they were quickly punished when they missed yet another penalty kick.

Yardleians’ number14 picked up the ball before taking advantage of some blocking to run in from 30 metres for a touch down which the fullback again converted.

On the stroke of half-time Kidderminster piled applied some pressure and Matt Rigsby went over and Pinner converted to make it 24-10.

Two more penalties extended the lead to 30-10 for the hosts.

Although there were long periods when KCs did not see very much of the ball they did improve in the second half.

But the game was lost in the error-strewn first 40 minutes, when they failed to execute the basics.

Kidderminster Carolians will be looking for a lot better when they play their last home fixture of the season on Saturday against Shrewsbury (KO 3pm).