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KILBURN COSMOS 17 - VERULAMIANS 15

A last minute try in the corner to flying wing Peter Donaldson gave Kilburn a thrilling 17-15 victory over Verulamians in their Herts Middlesex Div 1 fixture on Saturday.
After a strong start Kilburn found themselves 10 points down with 5 minutes to play but quick fire tries to Del Bousfield and Donaldson and a conversion by fly half Andy Allan gave Cosmos the last gasp away victory and lifted them to 6th in the table with a record of 2 wins from 4 games.

Unavailability meant the Cosmos were forced to field a very inexperienced backline, including debutantes Paul Nolan at scrum-half, Allan at fly half and Hayden Dawkins at centre. However all seemed to working well when centre Boyd Davis shrugged off the Verulamians midfield defence and burst clear before sending a long pass out to the flying try machine Donaldson to score out wide in the 4th minute.
For the rest of the half the Cosmos continued to attack and often looked like getting themselves into scoring positions but loose passes and bad options meant they put themselves under pressure and played into the hands of the big Verulamians forward pack.
By the end of the first half Verulamians were dominating the game, smashing the Cosmos in the scrum, ruling the lineouts and camped in the Kilburn 22.
Only resolute defence by the Cosmos, typified by a brilliant covering tackle on Verulamians monster inside centre metres from the tryline by Davis, kept the Verulamians to a solitary successful penalty right at the close of the half and a 5-3 scoreline favouring Kilburn.

The second half began as the first had ended with Cosmos errors handing possession and field position to Verulamians who played to their strengths and used their forward pack as their attacking weapon with drives and mauls in the Cosmos 22.
The pressure told and repeated 5 metre scrums saw the totally dominant Verulamians forward pack drive the Cosmos back over the tryline for an easy pushover try to the Vs no8 in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
While being completely dominated in the set pieces Kilburn held the upper hand when in possession with their mobile forward pack linking well with the backline. But time and again bad options and loose passes continued to prevent the Cosmos from regaining the lead.
Replacement winger, veteran Lord Thorpe in his return after knee surgery, was unlucky to be denied a try because of an obstruction call and it looked like the Cosmos would go down narrowly again when a loose Cosmos pass was snatched up for a Verulamians converted try to take the score to 15-5 to the home side with 7 minutes to go.
However the running game of the Cosmos had taken its toll on the big Verulamians forwards who were missing tackles and giving away penalties as they struggled to hold onto their lead
A brilliant run by giant lock John Fenlon got the Cosmos into the Vs 22 and from the ensuing rucks flanker Bousfield crashed over under the posts for a try, converted by Allan, which gave the Cosmos hope with 3 minutes left.
With the Verulamians supporters yelling for the ref to blow fulltime the Cosmos desperately ran the ball back into the Verulamians 22, quick ball out the backline saw Davis drawing multiple defenders to give enough space for Donaldson to score in the corner to take the victory to the delight of the Kilburn team and supporters with the final score 17-15 to Kilburn.

Boyd Davis was a massive threat to Verulamians all game with his powerful running, forcing the Vs to use 2 men to mark him, and leading the inexperienced backline in defence.
Once again loosies Bousfield and Captain Scott Aitken worked tirelessly, repeatedly knocking down much larger opposition and coach Shayne Whyte made a massive impact with his strong running at no 8 after he replaced the injured John Cameron at halftime.
Man of the match was 2 try hero Donaldson with Davis and Bousfield picking up the other MVP points but overall it was a huge performance by the entire team with excellent performances by the new boys Nolan, Allan and Dawkins.

TEAM

2006/2007