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KILBURN COSMOS 22 - OLD MERCHANT TAYLORS 28

Another brilliant second half comeback by Kilburn was not enough to avoid defeat against Old Merchant Taylors on Saturday in their Herts Middlesex Div 1 fixture at Tiverton Green.
Kilburn came back from a 21-10 deficit early in the second half to lead 22-21 with 15 minutes to play but conceded a close range try in the last 10 minutes which was converted for a 28-22 victory to Old Merchant Taylors

Once again Kilburn got off to a dreadful start with a disorganised defence conceding a try in just the second minute. Spurred into action the Cosmos soon evened the score with a try in the corner to wing James Thorpe who was put into space by centre Boyd Davis.
The OMT tactics were based around dominating set piece ball with their well drilled forward pack and letting their fly-half unleash his brilliant kicking game to keep the Cosmos pinned in their 22 and they executed these tactics flawlessly.
Utilising the good field possession the OMT fly-half showcased his kicking skills with a well taken drop goal to take an 8-5 lead.
As has been the case all season the Cosmos struggled to win their own ball in the set pieces against a bigger and better drilled pack and losing giant lock Jon Fenlon to injury midway through the first half was a massive blow.
Unable to rely on regular possession from their forward pack the Cosmos backline were forced to run any ball they could get and a break by fly-half Nathan Hurst from close to the Cosmos tryline saw the ball quickly shifted out to Thorpe on the wing who sprinted 65 metres for his second try and put the Cosmos into the lead 10-8. This was short-lived as they soon conceded a penalty to make it 11-10 to OMT.
The rest of the half saw OMT dominating possession and position and any progress upfield the Cosmos made was soon reversed by the brilliant kicking of the OMT fly-half. Eventually the pressure told and the OMT no8 scored on the blindside from a 5 metre scrum to give OMT an 18-10 lead at halftime.

The start of the second half saw OMT continuing to dominate proceedings and they stretched their lead to 21-10 with a penalty 13 minutes into the half.
With nothing to lose the Cosmos continued to throw the ball around and run from everywhere and they started to find holes in the OMT defence. Another Hurst break from the halfway line lead to an inside pass to replacement flanker Glenn Cunninghame who was seemingly try bound before pulling up short and offloading to the ever present Del Bousfield who crashed over for the try.
Soon after another Cosmos attack from within their own half went through 8 sets of hands before captain Scott Aitken crashed onto a short ball 10 metres from the OMT tryline to score under the posts. The try was duly converted to take the Cosmos to a 22-21 lead with 15 minutes to go to the delight of the large home crowd.
However this was 15 minutes too long for the tiring Cosmos team. Unable to win their own scrum and lineout ball against the dominant OMT pack the Cosmos were soon doggedly defending their try line and eventually the OMT forwards mauled their way over the line for the winning try which was converted for a final score of 28-22.

Despite receiving a hiding in the set pieces the Cosmos forwards battled hard all game and shaded the opposition in the open play. The backline all had brilliant games with hard running and brutal defence especially from flyhalf Hurst and centres Hayden Dawkins and Davis.
The difference between the teams on the day was the dominance in the set pieces by the OMT forward pack and an exceptional kicking game by the OMT fly-half.

Man of the match for the Cosmos was fly-half Nathan Hurst who continually broke through the OMT defence with his strong running, James Thorpe was close behind with his 2 try effort, with centre Boyd Davis and prop Hayden McKenzie also impressing.

TEAM

2006/2007