Kenilworth take their foot off the gas after early adventure

A willingness to attack from almost anywhere was a key feature of Kenilworth’s four-try win over Earsldon, writes Ralph Murray.

Kenilworth started brightly and some early work in the opposition 22 lead to a straightforward penalty in front of the posts for Tom Kendall. Earlsdon’s first attack from the restart saw Kenilworth stray offside and the scores were level.

Harry O’Brien’s probing kick gave Nyle Beckett a sniff of a chance but the ball drifted into touch. However, Earlsdon failed to secure possession and, with Kenilworth moving forward, Gareth Renowden went over for the first try of the afternoon.

Repeated backchat from Earlsdon gave Ks a lineout five metres out and, after the drive was halted, the home side moved the ball out wide from the scrum for Ross Lowthian to score in the corner and extend the lead.

A yellow card for offside presented Kenilworth with a chance to further stretch their advantage. However, Ks knocked on with the line beckoning and in the final act of the half, Andy Whitehall was edged into touch.

The first Kenilworth attack of the second half put Jimmy Middleton close to scoring but Earlsdon cleared the eventual ruck.

Back came Kenilworth and from a lineout close to the Earlsdon line, Collett disguised the carry before putting Renowden over. Kendall added the two.

Earlsdon responded with a series of runs close to the Kenilworth line. Their fly-half, who had already tried a number of options, decided to go it alone and broke two tackles to score near the posts. The conversion brought it back to 20-10.

Earlsdon again lost a player to the sin-bin after failing to retreat and Ks wasted no time in pressing home the man advantage.

From the ensuing possession, the ball was spun left with O’Brien putting Dominic Sheehan in for the bonus-point score.

Any thoughts of an easy last 20 minutes were quickly dispelled by Earlsdon’s next series of attacks. Scott, who had an industrious afternoon at number ten for the visitors, had again looked at various options before attempting a deft chip ahead to the in-goal area but Renowden had it covered and the pressure was eased.

Earlsdon found themselves defending their 22 soon after and the ensuing clearance produced the moment of the match.

An attempted touchfinder found the grateful arms of Beckett just outside his own 22. A brief interplay with Whitehall looked to maintain the momentum and the ball was eventually returned to Beckett who broke one tackle and stepped the next. A burst of speed took him deep into the Earlsdon half and good footwork allowed him to evade the would-be tacklers and covering full-back to score a scintillating try.

At 34-10 the home crowd might have expected the floodgates to open but Earlsdon were having none of it.

The decision to go to uncontested scrums had removed a key weapon for the home side but the visitors continued to press in the hope of getting something out of the game.

One such attack saw the ball spun wide to the Earlsdon centre who stepped his marker well to score in the left corner.

Again the visitors took the ball up close to Ks line and an early tackle by Tom Nicholson saw him sent to the bin and from the ensuing possession playmaker Scott again went it alone for the final try of the afternoon.