Kidderminster Carolians 41 Earlsdon RFC 0

KC gave the crowd at Chairman’s Day a feast of rugby with the most complete team performance seen this season.

The game was scrappy for the first ten minutes, KC were unable to get going as a succession of penalties against them pinned them back in their own half.

Eventually KC got on the scoresheet following a good forward move which was finished by the backs’ close passing,. opening up the defence for Rob Phillips to score.

Pressure from KC was building and a swerving run by Tom Dalton fed the ball to Ryan Tiene who rounded the defence to score, Jack O’Hagan made the conversion. As half-time approached KC scored their third try; a great break by Ryan Wainwright was taken on with a short burst from Morgan Maxwell, fed to Tom Dalton and taken on by full back George Tildesley whose powerful run dummied the last defender and scored. O’Hagan got the conversion.

In the second half KC made some good moves keeping themselves in the Earlsdon half, when their pressure paid off with a penalty on the Earlsdon 22 metre line. The alert Chris Pinner was on hand to take the penalty quickly, catching the Earlsdon defence on their heels for him to score the bonus point try under the posts.

The forwards played a big part in this game with significant contributions from all players. Mention must be made of the good ground made by the two young props Aaron Crawley and Jack Bennett, Tom Mayer was his usual prominent self in both the line out and loose play, while George Lloyd-Jones was impressive in the line-out using his height to win the ball.

Left winger Joel Keenan used his speed to make good ground and set up several KC moves.

The next try came as Tom Dalton made good ground with a clever jinking break, passed to Jack Barrett, who in turn quickly passed onto George Tildesley who drew the defence and gave a short pass to Ryan Tiene. Tiene then scored his second try with a powerful 50 metre gallop to completely outpace the defence.

Ryan Wainwright had several powerful runs in the game and his last was particularly exciting with a 40 metre sprint when he brushed aside at least two defenders before being finally stopped close to the line. The excellent KC support play was demonstrated with short passes as the ball was quickly switched between O’Hagan, Joel Keenan, Tildesley and Pinner for Tildesley to cross for the sixth try and his second.

Particularly creditable was keeping a clean sheet, Earlsdon being unable to challenge the KC line. The other was the part played by young players whose confidence continues to grow.

Report submitted by Kidderminster Carolians