Keynsham had a squad of 21 captained by Tom Wheatley, making his comeback from an injury which cut his season short last year. Others that were having their first run out this term were Owen Boyce who is in the transition of making his way from the centre to the forwards after coming back to rugby last season after a long break. The versatile Luke Coggins in his second year of seniors, the old war horse Phil Harvey who had an eventful 4 mins (more to come on that) and the young Marley Hawkseby.
Old Bristolians came with an equally big squad and ready to sharpen themselves up before the season kicks off in 2 weeks’ time.
The first half was a 2-way event with Old Bs keeping Ks off their line followed by periods of play where Ks had to defend hard to prevent Old Bs prevailing. The deadlock was finally broken when Old Bs made a mistake while attempting to get out of their 22. Ollie Sayer picked up the ball and made valuable ground and the backs reacted with quick hands from Jamie Ridewell-Williams to Freddie Hosford and to fullback Harvey Hobbs who beat the last man close to the line to go over. Hosford missed the difficult conversion from the touchline as the wind had picked up and was making life difficult.
The next try went K’s way again from slightly broken play on the halfway line Hosford at 10, received a ball and deliberately running slightly lateral to make the defence honest made a long pass to outside centre Ollie Towe who was making a hard straight run smashing through two defenders and galloping free down the middle of the pitch with the full back to beat. Lewis Button had anticipated this and came flying off his left wing to get on to Towe’s left shoulder. Towe drew the last man, and Button flew in in the right corner. Lovely try but another challenging conversion attempt for Hosford which was missed. Ks went into HT 10-0 up.
Well, there isn’t a lot to write about the 2nd half after Jack Josham used his considerable running strength to score at close quarters and Hosford kicked the extras 17-0.
It then turned into a very scrappy and somewhat boring game of rugby which most supporters, coaches and perhaps players were pleased to see the back of but in a nutshell….
Old Bs had the upper hand scoring 2 tries and a conversion. Then a rather pathetic attempt at handbags and a bizarre cameo.
Ks needed some help in the scrum so enter the aforementioned Phil Harvey to make 4 minutes of the half interesting. He came on won a penalty immediately from his first scrum then won another at his second. Decided to practice his tap dancing at a breakdown and was asked to leave the pitch. 4 mins, done!
So, what will the coaches get out of that? Answer not a lot except that the young team needs to learn how to take control of a scrappy stop / start match. Old Bs were cleverly disruptive at the breakdown and Ks will need to be dominant in this area so the backs can get quicker and cleaner ball. Along with not throwing it around when you have it, the small hard yards are sometimes the best way to get control. Finally, if you haven’t had had the ball for long periods of time (in the words of Corporal Jones (one for the older reader) DON’T PANIC!
Next week sees the Old Reds re-match. Both sides will have large squads and Ks intend to look at everyone that hasn’t been seen yet.

Don’t forget it is Cider Fest after so get your tickets!!!!