Kings Norton 5 Keresley 5
Midlands Four West (South)
HONOURS ended even in this closely fought and energetic game at Hopwood Park on Saturday.
Kings began strongly, pinning their visitors in their own half for the first 15 minutes without creating the breakthrough.
Once Keresley gained some momentum, their heavier pack pressurised Kings for a ten-minute spell and almost scored a great forwards try, only for Kings’ defence to hold up ball and player over the line.
Keresley continued the attack and almost immediately took the lead with a superb try in the left-hand corner when, from a lineout, their fly half threw a monster pass out to his winger who somehow managed to gather the loose ball to cross the try-line by the corner flag.
The conversion was missed and Kings restarted the game in determined fashion, working their way upfield and camping for a lengthy spell near their visitors’ try-line.
They finally won a penalty opportunity which flew narrowly wide but Kings kept the pressure on and the robust Richie Revell powered over for an unconverted try to make it 5-5 at the break.
Kings began the second half brightly and, after ten minutes of hard fought possession, should have scored when Ryan Smitherman collected a pass from Ed Fogg and went on a mazy run before feeding Alex Styliano who had popped up on the wing.
He looked certain to score as he raced for the corner flag, only to stumble and lose control of the ball at the vital moment.
Although the second half remained scoreless, there was plenty of good rugby played by both teams whose stout defences held firm against regular attacks throughout this pulsating contest.
Kings take a rest from league action and have pool fixtures for the next two Saturdays before travelling to Pershore on October 22 for their fourth league game.