Match Report 1st XV vs Leamington 2 April 2022 - Leamington 7 KC 28

For a change KC came out of the blocks strongly, taking possession into the Leamington half and opening the scoring after five minutes with a break by Jack O’Hagan in the Leamington 22, he gave a quick short pass to the supporting Tom Dalton, O’Hagan making the conversion.
KC were now looking excellent, using possession to gain ground particularly from pick-ups by number eight Ryan Wainwright. KC’s second score came from a McLellan break making good ground and passing to the supporting Tom Dalton to score, Jack O’Hagan converting.
Leamington started to work their way into the game making good ground when they had possession. The stand out of their performance was their very slick line out, timing the throw-in and jump perfectly which guaranteed them much good ball. Leamington started using their possession positively and tested the KC defence with several very powerful mauls close to the line. Eventually the KC defence cracked and Leamington scored a converted try.
KC defence has been good all season, this continued with players defending well and making good tackles, particularly Will Fallows and Jesse Burgess
The third try came from an Andy McLellan break and a pass to Tom Dalton for him to go over near to the left-hand touch line and he cleverly ran round behind the defence to touch down between the posts giving Jack O’Hagan his third successful conversion. The first half closed with KC leading by 21 to 7 at a time when Leamington were putting their own pressure onto KC.
The second half was more even, KC playing the ball tight through their forwards and not using the pace of their back line. Rob Philips and Ryan Wainwright made good ground. Further forward pressure was rewarded following a series of mauls close to the Leamington line the ball was switched for the ever-present Tom Dalton to score his fourth try which he also converted. Dalton had a great match scoring 22 points and was also prominent in defence and other aspects of the attack.
In the last ten minutes KC appeared to relax, Leamington were winning much possession and their continued attacks in the KC 22 area were held off by the spirited KC defence. Unfortunately, KC did not help themselves because of a series of mis-kicks and wrong choices meant they were unable to clear their lines and remove the pressure.
Is it a lack of fitness or poor game management that has caused KC to lose several games in the last quarter? Luckily in this game KC given themselves a buffer with their early scores.
Overall a good win with a good team effort giving them their third win on the road.
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Bob Davies
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