Match Report Courtesy of Brian Pinner.....

Kidderminster Carolians notched up their second single point victory in successive weeks when they did just enough to defeat a spirited Leamington side in the first league match of the season.

The match was played in perfect conditions, and both sides looked to run the ball at every opportunity. However the defences held firm until Leamington broke the deadlock in the 18th minute with a penalty kick. Despite struggling in the early scrum encounters KCs started to work their way into the opposition territory, and were rewarded with a George Morgan penalty to level the scores.

Leamington continued to probe, and scored the first try on 27 minutes, when some slick handling created space on the blind side for their full back to sprint over from 30 yards. The conversion gave them a 10 – 3 lead, but KCs battled back and reduced the deficit when a well-worked line out move saw Layton Wilkinson driven over the line for an unconverted try.

Further pressure resulted in a straightforward penalty chance that was converted by Morgan to give KCs an 11 – 10 lead at half time.

The home side increased their intensity at the star of the second half, with Mike Protheroe contesting every breakdown, and the Baldwin twins, Alex and Chris, making good yards with their rampaging runs. Leamington were pressurised into conceding a number of penalties in their own half, and KCs opted to kick to touch in an effort to use their line-out dominance again, but were unsuccessful on two occasions.

The Leamington No.8 was shown a yellow card for persistent infringements after 10 minutes of the half, and this numerical advantage helped KCs to stretch their lead. Leamington were on the attack when a long pass was intercepted by Laurence Hughes on his own 22 metre line, and he showed a clean pair of heels to sprint over under the posts, with Morgan adding the conversion to take the score to 18 – 10 in the home side’s favour.

A number of injuries to Leamington players in the final quarter of the match disrupted the flow of the game, but KCs maintained their momentum and scored another try from a line-out drive with Chris Baldwin crashing over. The game opened up in the final ten minutes as both sides tired, with Leamington scoring a try following a KCs infringement at a scrum (23 – 15), only for KCs to reply with their fourth try when Mitch Hardwick darted over from close range, Sam Taylor adding what turned out to be the crucial conversion (30 – 15).

Leamington refused to lie down though, and in the 7 minutes added on for injury time they scored two converted tries to bring them to within a single point, but thankfully for the home side the final whistle blew before they could restart. KCs travel to Nuneaton Old Edwardians on Saturday for their next league fixture (3pm kick off).