Tries rain down on Kenilworth

Outplayed in all facets of the game, Kenilworth were forced to live off scraps on their way to theirheaviest defeat for some time, writes Bob Jones.

It took just two minutes for the visitors to open their account.

Number eight Drew Harper, a hugely influential figure all afternoon, spotted the home defence had gone walkabout and charged from well within his own half to deep inside Ks’ 22, where he found fly-half Ben Copson on his shoulder to take the scoring pass. Copson, whose boot was subsequently to pile on the points, missed the conversion.

As proved to be the case throughout the remainder of the game, the response from the Glasshouse Lane crew was at best sporadic, with the Worcestershire outfit constantly denying them possession.

Mike Rust and Matt Mountford combined on one such occasion, but the break ended in touch, then good lineout ball from Dan Careless and an ensuing drive by the pack to near the Bromsgrove line was spoilt by an offside.

Having prevented a further score until the second quarter, the home side were then undone by former Glasshouse Lane favourite Ade Hales, who picked up an over-the-shoulder flicked pass from hooker Nick Byron to waltz through a succession of weak tackles to the line, Copson converting.

The home cause was not helped by the retirement of Will Parkes with a neck injury, the versatile Dan Roberts replacing him.

The floodgates having opened, it was no surprise when, after a sweeping move, centre Tom Millen was one of a queue waiting for the scoring pass.

Mark Warrilow, whose lineout throws had been poor, was replaced by Rob Varney on the half-hour.

A disastrous few minutes prior to the end of the half first saw left-wing Warren Oliver, then Hales, cut through the defence at will for tries, both converted by Copson.

In time added on by referee Ben Wish, a couple of decent moves, in which Dave Clements, Jed Boyle and Rust featured prominently, failed to bear fruit.

Symptomatic of Bromsgrove’s desire to give their opponents nothing, even when walking away with the contest, Millen was yellow-carded for deliberate offside.

Heavy rain, which had set in late in the first half, continued as the second commenced, and so did the Bromsgrove attacks.

The mobile Byron was soon over under the posts for a converted try.

Toby Handley was forced to retire injured, with Gareth Renowden moving to scrum-half and Chris Murphy coming on at centre.

An Adam Canning pass, which could have spelt danger for the visitors, narrowly eluded Boyle, then a hack on by Ed Hunter was taken over the Bromsgrove line. A knock-on from the resulting five-metre scrum ended that promising surge.

Matters turned rather tetchy around the 70-minute mark and, 
following one altercation, Varney was sent to the sin-bin by referee Wish.

Unlike Kenilworth, who failed yet again to cash in on their man advantage, Bromsgrove took only a minute, with the rampaging Harper touching down and Copson adding the extras.

Further converted tries for replacement scrum-half Ben Newman and centre Toby Wilson compounded the misery before time was mercifully signalled.