Kilburn failed to make the most of their chances and lost out in a tough match against Verulamians on Saturday.

From the start it was pretty clear that the sides had different strengths. Kilburn had skillful and hard running backs but their pack struggled against a solid scrum in the forwards. Smarter play by Kilburn would have seen them keep the ball away from the big men and spun wide to the speedy backline consisting of Chris Garvey, Peter Donaldson and Hayden Dawkins. In the event, although the backs made great use of the ball when they had it, their chances were too few as the play was sucked into an attritional forwards battle.

This is not to say that the Kilburn forwards did not play well. Declan Magee, the Cosmos hooker, surged through time and again forcing desparate tackles from the visitors. Jon Trout, the improving second row and his second row partner Jeremy Shragge were skillful at the line out and hard in both attack and defence. Trout particularly played more like a flanker than a lock, stealing ball and making ground all over the park and justly earning his first "man of the match" award for the 1XV.

Returning to the fray, old timers in the centre Mike King and Shayne Whyte were tragically under used in attack as their hard running forced the visitors to commit more and more players to the tackle. As the Kilburn backs used their chances, the tempo of the game raced upwards and at times all 15 kilburn players were committed to the attack and the ball flew from hand to hand. Simon Rae, Kilburns flyhalf made a decisive break after a stroming run from Peter Donaldson and touched down for the home side's only try, which was converted by fullback Garvey.

The game was dead even at half time, with Kilburn enjoying dominance in the backs and Verulamians taking the ball on in the forwards. A pushover try from a penalty ended a period of attacking play by the visitors which added to an earlier penalty and made the interval score 7-8.

The second half saw Kilburn right on top, and for nearly a whole quarter they forced the visitors back to their own line with some excellent committed attacking play which saw skipper Scott Aitken driving forward in wave after wave of blue and green shirts crashing the ball up. Unable to convert the pressure of the third quarter into points, Kilburn were gradually undone as frustration forced errors and gradually the tide turned against them and they found themselves lost in their own 22 for the remainder of the game.

A controversial period of play on their own line saw several penalties conceeded on their own line. Hoping for a push over try, Verulamians took the scrum option and tried to out muscle a tired Kilburn tight five. Front row players Morgan, Protherough and McGee turned the situation round with some superb scrummage, but unfortunately a further penalty conceeded a try and the match ended with the visitors on 13 points and Kilburn on 7.