Kings Norton 22 Atherstone 18
Midlands Four West (South)
KINGS Norton eventually emerged victors over Saturday’s opponents in this proverbial ‘game of two halves’.
However, the home side’s lacklustre first half performance did not bode for a positive outcome as Atherstone attacked from the off and, after a short period of pressure from the visitors, Kings succumbed to a determined forward drive, conceding a penalty from which Atherstone’s quick-thinking back row swiftly tapped and drove over for an unconverted try.
From the restart Atherstone continued their pressure on Kings’ much-changed squad and camped themselves in the home half for most of the next 20 minutes before cracking Norton’s ragged defence to score their second try.
The home forwards slowly dragged themselves into the game, building pressure on their opponents to reverse their attacks and thus gaining ground to release a number of powerful thrusts by Ben Boyce, Chris Hands and Chris Minot.
Atherstone began to lose their discipline and with five minutes of the half remaining the ball was spread wide, eventually coming to Minot who crashed through to score close to the posts before captain Shane Rees converted to cut Kings’ arrears to three points.
The home side were a different animal after the break as they attacked from the restart, playing with confidence and ball control to cut through, and it was that man Boyce who finished off a great period of play to touch down for an unconverted try which moved Kings into a narrow lead.
The second period belonged to the home side whose ball handling and strong attacks caused constant problems to Atherstone, whose regular indiscipline forced the referee to hand out three yellow cards.
Kings crossed for two more tries during a 16-minute spell when both full back Mike Smalling raced through to score and Jack Nash forced himself over for Kings’ fourth and bonus point try.
Atherstone did not give up and in a spirited finish scored their third try as they ended the game on the attack.
Seventh placed Kings are in the pool for a fixture on Saturday.
