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KILBURN COSMOS 28 - OLD ABBOTSTONIANS 7

The Kilburn Cosmos went into their second Herts-Middlesex Division 1 league fixture looking to improve on their opening game. With several key players still unavailable due to World Cup viewing commitments and the usual Kilburn player registration issues the Cosmos were forced to field a side with no reserves and several players playing out of position.

Playing away from home, for the first 15min Kilburn had to absorb wave after wave of Old Abbotstonian pressure in their own 22. After fighting off several lineouts 5 metres from their line Kilburn fought their way back up the field and were rewarded with a penalty in front of the posts which Chris Coane confidently kicked between the uprights. So after 20mins of play Kilburn found themselves with a 3-0 lead which at that stage was against the run of play. It was during the 2nd quarter that Kilburn’s pack began to find its footing with strong work by prop James George tying up opposition ball and big Australian No 8 John Cameron constantly making the advantage line. However after a promising Kilburn attack broke down Old Abbotstonian capitalised, bringing play back into the Kilburn half before scoring under the posts for an easy conversion. This gave Old Abbotstonian a 7-3 lead which they deservedly held into the halftime break.

After some inspirational words at halftime from the skipper Scott Aitken Kilburn came out firing with decisive running by first five Ryan Manton and sublime distribution skills from Boyd Davis putting winger Theo Freed in space who out ran his opposite number to score in the corner. Unfortunately that was to be Theo’s last contribution to the game as a few minutes later Theo was forced off with injury. This left Kilburn a man down and having to dig deep to overcome the numerical disadvantage. And dig deep they did, with lock forward Gavin Smales breaking through the defense and running 30 metres to score in the corner. This was followed soon after by a well executed move off a lineout with forwards and backs linking well to put Kelvin Mundt away in the corner, which was converted by Chris Coane to take the score to 20 - 7. Kilburn then began to stamp their authority on the game with the forwards dominating lose play and the backs finding holes in the Old Abbotstonian defense at will. Chris Coane kicked a penalty to take Kilburn 2 converted tries clear, before Kelvin Mundt finished with his second try to make it 28 – 7 which is how it stayed. Kilburn finishing as deserved winners with prop Bernard Knapp being the skippers player of the day in a pack that had many stand out performances.

TEAM

2006/2007