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Kings visited a wet Brixham on Saturday and put in an excellent display to push their hosts to one side with relative ease. Kings started strongly with the wind in their favour and took the first scrum and fed the ball out through the backs for newbie winger James Long to go over out wide. Then the next try had a bit of comedy about it as an unsightly mêlée broke out but Greg parrott ignored this and continued playing the ball and ran in from distance he also added the extras. Kings then decided to kick the ball away with no good reason for a spell but then settled for Gareth hack to go over for the first of his hatrick, indeed it was Hack again who following up a brilliant missile of a kick from flanker Alan “exocet” Rowden gathered the ball to go over. Half time 5-22.

Immediately after the break the pack won yet more excellent ball and on this occasion the safe hands of Steve Hamilton,  James Long and John Moore enabled the latter to jink his way over with Parrott again converting. Then it was the turn of the team tubbies to go over firstly with Scot Holford for a well deserved try and then full back Hamilton who left an indent in the ground as he made sure of his dive over the line. Brixham almost scored but that flying flanker Rowden brought an abrupt halt to their chance by putting in a crunching tackle on the attacking winger just short of the line. Further scores came from Drew Nicol, Hack, a classic interception by Moore who followed this up with the last try of the game. The team all deserve a mention as there were no slackers out there in the harsh conditions and credit goes to each and every man who can be proud of this performance.

The Under 10s proved how they are really developing as a team throughout the match with some excellent passing that would put some older teams to shame.

The ball was passed from player to player, who were each looking for the off load and this soon started to pay dividends as the tries started coming. The combination of Tom Newman, Toby Baldry and Will Holliss proved to be devastating to the Totnes defence as their quick thinking and speedy response took the ball over the line for the first of three tries for Will.

Totnes fought back with some good rucking but Kings were able to turn over the ball and regain possession, giving Toby the space to streak down the side line from their line to run the length of the pitch to score.Archie Walwyn and Fynn Ive playing some very strong forward play, broke through the Totnes defence on more than one occasion at one point creating a maul where they managed to get the ball back out to be passed out to Ivor Matthews on the wing whose sheer determination took him over the line.

Jos West and Louie Harrow worked tirelessly tackling and defending to secure the ball for it once again to be passed down the line to Freddie Ford who saw the opening, passing the ball to the blind side to Ivor who got his second try of the game.

An impressive team effort took the score to 55 – 0 at half time.

For the second half of the game, Kings completely changed their team to allow some newer team members the chance to show their pace. Oscar Thomas and Will John showed they too had a turn of speed, Will scoring a hat trick. Ben Hyne and Milo Hignett put in some impressive tackles.  Jack Quick retrieved the ball out of the back of a ruck and passed to Otis Purchase who showed he too was a force to be reckoned with an excellent jinking run for the first of his 3 tries.

When Rylan Jackson took to the pitch he immediately made an impact, driving the Totnes defence backwards on more than one occasion. Harrison Wood also had a good run but was denied the try by a well-timed tackle from Totnes on the line, but Otis was quick to respond with a last minute try, taking the final score at 85 – 25.

Great team effort by everyone and good commitment by all. Well done boys.

With only two home matches remaining in this seasons league campaign, Kingsbridge are now in serious danger of being dragged into the relegation zone following this defeat, to Bude, at High House on Saturday.

This would have been one of the remaining matches that the Blue and Whites had pinpointed to win as they aimed to pull away from the base of the table. However Bude have recently been putting together a good run of results and whilst Kingsbridge kept in touch for most of the game, they kept giving away silly points from which they were unable to recover.

The visitors had opened the scoring in the 18^th minute when they drove a ten metre scrum back to within five metres of the Kingsbridge line and when their number eight was held up he was able to off load for the Bude scrum half to cross over in the corner to put his team 0-5 ahead.

Kingsbridge stormed back immediately and set up camp in the Bude 22. Several minutes of sustained forward pressure saw a series of rucks take play towards the visitors line and from one of these flanker Ali Hamilton was able to peel off and cross the try line. Winger Matt Barlow added a great conversion and two minutes later added another successful kick to put Kingsbridge 10-5 ahead.

Back came Bude on the half hour as a speculative kick into the Kingsbridge twenty two was badly dealt with by the hosts and a cruel bounce saw the visitors were able to run in unopposed to score their second try. The conversion was added to put Bude 10-12 ahead.

A further try followed, from Bude, only four minutes later to increase their lead to 10-17 before Kingsbridge scored their second try of the half, through lock Sean Woodland, on the stroke of half time to reduce the arrears to 15-17.

There was no further addition to the score in the opening ten minutes of the second half before both teams exchanged penalties to take the score to 18-20 with Kingsbridge’s penalty coming from the boot of Matt Barlow.

Bude then scored their fourth try as 20 metre drive from a line out saw them take the hosts back over their own line and take the score to 18-25.With time running out  Kingsbridge at least had the consolation of a losing bonus point but that was ripped from their grasp with the final action of the game as Bude – again – crossed over for another try courtesy of a well worked rolling maul.

This Saturday sees the 1^st XV travel to Bideford for the rearranged league match postponed from 4^th February. Kingsbridge A XV are at home to Tavistock II’s at 2.30pm at High House whilst the Colts XV are without a match this weekend.

A note to all the Ladies out there is that the 4^th Annual ‘Scrummies Lunch’ will take place at the clubhouse on Saturday 10^th March. Tickets are already selling fast and will be limited this year. This season’s charity is Saltstone Caring. Please contact Sophia Robinson (07989 989622), Sue Darke (07855 878604) or Martin Newman (07974 803735) for further details.

A further note to ALL club members is that Management Committee of the Club are offering FREE ENTRY to all current club members for the final 1^st XV home league match of the season. The ‘Local Derby’ with Ivybridge takes place at High House on Saturday 31^st March. Members are advised to bring their ‘Members Admission Card’ with them to confirm eligibility.

 A beautiful crisp morning on Sunday brought a large and competitive Totnes team to High House for a historically tough confrontation. Kingsbridge Under 12’s have worked hard in training all season and the confidence in the squad is very high as weekly performances get better and better. The following game however raised the bar to new heights as Kings blew away the opposition in a display of ball winning and fast flowing rugby. Future potential Chief Devon Jewsbury started proceedings with a slanted run to cross the line for the first of his three tries in the first half alone. Powerhouse Louis Chapman went over for the second almost straight from the restart as the backs were supplied with an almost limitless supply of ball from a pack of forwards recycling rucked ball with text book body positioning and kinetic  energy. Ollie Wotton with a trade mark slalom run and Sam Jones from the base of another ruck finished  the first half off with Totnes pegging back a single score.

The second half was almost a carbon copy as the rotated pack continued to scrummage and ruck hard giving the backs a sound platform to run riot. The peerless James Tait restarted proceedings followed by a cameo brace from Sam West whose strong running continued to break the gain line. Final tries from Louis Chapman and Devon Jewsbury completed the eleven try display. Totnes battled hard to the very end and were rewarded in the second half by two consolation tries.  Whilst all the tries came from the backs this was a victory created by a fantastic forwards performance typified by twinkle toes Ben Woods.

Travelling to Teignmouth for this return fixture, Kingsbridge Colts gave the game to the home team in the first 5 minutes with two dropped balls and the home team taking advantage by scoring unopposed under the posts 14-0.

With the game settling down the visitors started to put pressure on the home team and were rewarded 2 penalties within kicking range that George Banfield converted 14-6. The home team always looked sharper even with some solo running from Kellan Gorman, but lack of support didn’t let the attacks materialise. Teignmouth jumped on the chance to score again, with some poor tackling and their centre going in unopposed. 19-6.  Kingsbridge showed some attacking intent but more individual than a team effort so it was always going to be difficult for the visitors to get across the line to score.

The second half saw the weather taking a hold, with the home team using the wind to their advantage putting pressure on the Kingsbridge team. Teignmouth eventually went over to score an unconverted try 24-6. The visitors showed flashes of the type of game they had been playing, but today Kingsbridge were beaten by a better team.

There’s a break this week, with the next game at home against Crediton.

Kingsbridge were well marshalled by Jayden Bacon and Charlie Newman, withstanding a very physical Totnes team with good defensive play from Max Fergusson, Louis Tollins, and Henry Whittaker, turning around 8 a piece.

Kingsbridge kept their discipline and were rewarded with tries from Joe Burner (3), Tyrone Farr, Gus Howells, Joshua Perrett, Rhys Stephens, and Ben Walwyn (9), while some excellent support running came from Gus Howells and Carlito Rodrigues.

Kingsbridge RFC U8’s 13,    Totnes RFC U8’s 5

Parents and spectators were treated to a fine game of rugby at High House with a taste of how the well drilled KRFC U8’s squad can perform.

A flying start for the home side saw them 5-2 up at half time with Ben Banner making the most of any turnover ball and running in two superb tries.  Totnes in the second half never gave up and despite having the smaller squad, put together some great moves, although they were unable to hold back the charge of the blue and whites. Todd Chapman showed his pace and agility, scoring twice and taking the Kings to a convincing victory of 9 points to 4.

The second match followed a similar pattern with the home side constantly moving the ball at pace.  Ben Vassall’s strength and determination in defence constantly slowed down any of the Totnes moves and saw the boys 6-3 up at half time. Continued team work and the speed of Max Goodwin down the wing saw the home side worthy winners with a final score of 13-5.  Man of the match must go to Domi Fink for his selfless play throughout both games.

Squad: Ben Banner (4), Jonas Brewer (1), Ben Brizio, Ethan Byrne (1), Todd Chapman (2), Domi Fink (4), Max Goodwin (4), Sam Gray, Jacob King, Jon Scott (1), Alex Tickner (4), Ben Vassall, Oliver Zaffiro (1), Zak Zaffiro

Kingsbridge had initially been due to face St Ives at this stage of the competition last weekend but following their withdrawal, Bude were selected to fill the vacancy. As the two teams were therefore due to face each other for two successive Saturday’s, the decision was made to combine the two competitions in one game.

The match, which kicks off at High House at 2.30pm, has been very kindly sponsored by STAGS ESTATE AGENTS and is preceded by the first of Kingsbridge’s Sponsors Lunches at noon.

Meanwhile Kingsbridge A XV travel to Brixham in the Devon 2^nd XV Merit Table and the Colts travel to Teignmouth in the Devon Colts Merit Table.

So all support will be appreciated!!!!!