Sun 26 Sep 2021, 14:30
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd stand in fly half Jack Rawlings played a played a major part in a convincing win for Kenilworth seconds over the visiting Newbold seconds in the Warwickshire cup quarter-final. Playing in an unfamiliar position of outside half Jack's two early tries set the standard for the rest of the game.
Newbold, as is their custom arrived with a large and belligerent pack of forwards who created problems for Kenilworth in the early stages.
Misfortune struck Kenilworth early on when back row Luke Green injured his shoulder only 2 minutes into the game.
A careless penalty by Kenilworth enabled Newbold to take an early 3-0 lead. Kenilworth replied with an outstanding try from fly half Rawlings converted by Robbie Holden.
Newbold responded with another penalty after some poor play by the home team to bring the score to 7-6
After only seven minutes Kenilworth number eight Ryka Sekhavati went off injured and wing Rhys Jones moved into the unfamiliar position of open side flanker. The Kens back row played a key role in preventing Newbold from getting into their stride and the stand-in 7 at times showed footwork that was more Strictly than Seconds.
Outstanding young winger David Opoku-Fordjour, created excitement whenever he touched the ball and added a third try which was converted leaving Kenilworth with a 19-11 lead at the break
After half time a very fine touch kick from the young tyro at 10 created a platform from which Youssef Shehabi scored to extend the lead further to 26-11
A further try from young winger Sam Miles extended the lead to 33-11 and Robbie Holden added a fine interception try to take Kenilworth to a 40 point total.
A final burst from young hooker Charlie Morris which in times gone by would have caused him to be expelled from the front row union left Kenilworth with a fine lead of 47 points to 11.
Suggestions that second row Raj Bahey deliberately took a dive rather than score from 50 metres out remain unproven.
Newbold finished with a converted try of their own at the death and the final score was 47 -18
All in all a most enjoyable day and a continuance of the winning run of the men’s senior teams.
Kenilworth were ably assisted by outstanding performances from recently arrived second row Luke Kavanagh, prop Ollie Stone and Tim Wilson at full-back who despite looking like a stand-in for Tom Hanks in Castaway made a fine return to Kenilworth colours.
Onwards and upwards to the semi-final.
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