Match Report Courtesy of Martin Easton...

Wolverhampton 21 KC’s 26

Playing against a strong gusty wind which was blowing diagonally across the pitch,KC’s found themselves five points behind with less than a minute played.From their own kick off their forwards tried to take the ball on but lost possession and an incisive counter attack by Wolverhampton created an overlap to put their fullback in at the right corner.A Wolves player was then tackled off the ball when trying to follow up a kick and the resultant penalty found touch on KC’s 22.From the lineout the hosts won a penalty twenty metres out and their No 12 converted comfortably to extend the lead to 8-0 and Kidder looked in for a testing afternoon.A penalty chance was blown off course and they suffered a further setback when flyhalf Andy McLellan had to leave the field with a hand injury,requiring scrumhalf Chris Pinner to move to No 10 with Alex Thompson coming on to fill in at No 9.

After a quarter of an hour KC’s at last got a foothold in the game when they made good ground from a lineout to win a penalty fifteen metres from Wolves posts and Pinner knocked over the kick to put the visitors on the board.Kidder then came under some sustained pressure which racked up the penalty count against them and midway through the half Wolves forwards drove over rather too easily from a five metre lineout.The try was excellently converted by their centre in the difficult conditions to extend the hosts advantage to 15-3 and although McLellan returned to the fray with centre Rhys Pritchard making way, openside Mike Protheroe was then yellow carded and Kidder’s prospects looked pretty grim.However,two minutes later Wolves No 4 was also shown yellow to even up the numbers and from the resultant penalty McLellan found a good touch inside the hosts half.From the lineout Pinner set off on a mazy run which took him into the 22 and when two Wolves defenders somewhat comically collided when trying to tackle him he was left with an easy jog to the line for a remarkable individual try which clawed back the deficit to 15-8.Encouraged by this score,KC’s then produced their best spell of rugby but Wolverhampton responded to end the half back on top.It had been a difficult forty minutes for Kidder but they had done well to stay in touch and had at least given themselves a chance in the second half with the elements in their favour.

After the break KC’s were able to revert to their original lineup with Pinner moving back to scrumhalf in place of Thompson and Pritchard back at centre and after only three minutes they drew level when a scrum ten metres from Wolves line was wheeled infield and No 8,skipper Rob Delahay,fed Pinner who was able to stroll over unopposed for a try which he converted himself.Wolverhampton’s re-start went straight into touch and it looked as though the tide might be turning in Kidder’s favour,even more so fifteen minutes later when Pinner knocked over a well struck penalty from thirty metres to put them ahead for the first time,18-15.Yet another break by the No 9,who had a fine match,looked likely to give him his hat-trick try until a last ditch ankle tap brought him down but as he attempted to keep the ball alive with an inside pass to centre Laurence Hughes a blatant deliberate knock on resulted in Wolves second yellow of the afternoon.

The home side were now clearly tiring and with twenty minutes left they conceded again,Protheroe finishing off a five metre lineout drive to extend KC’s lead to 23-15.For the next fifteen minutes they were mainly able to keep the hosts at long range

until their reliable No 12 put over a penalty to reduce the arrears to five points but Pinner replied immediately with his third successful penalty kick to again leave Wolves needing two scores to win the match but they ran out of time and with the last kick of the game sensibly opted to convert a penalty chance to pick up a consolation losing bonus point.

The win saw KC’s leapfrog their opponents to move into fourth place in Mids 2 West (N) and their much changed side showed considerable character and team spirit to turn around a match which at one stage had looked beyond them.

Next fixture – Ludlow (A) on Sat.25th October – KO 3.00 pm.