Cotham Park RFC The closest Rugby club to Clifton in Bristol

On a muddy, blustery day a spirited performance by Cotham Park was sadly not enough to deny top of the table Kingswood victory on Saturday.

A bright start from Kingswood tested the Cotham defence but some strong tackling and solid scrummaging relieved the early pressure. As the half progressed Cotham came back into it and deservedly took the lead with a penalty from Nick Comer, closely followed by a try from Captain Craig Coulstring. The half ended 8 nil.

The second half began with Cotham down to 14 men following the sin binning of prop John Board, this proved to be a telling 10 minutes. From the kick-off Kingswood recovered possession and quickly spread the ball out to the wing where they found the defence stretched, this allowed their scrum half to sneak in at the corner. With the wind clearly knocked from Cotham’s sails Kingswood began to press. The law change that has brought the driving maul back into the game was used to full effect by the now rampant Kingswood pack. Some solid line out ball was coupled with a strong driving maul to tear a large hole in the Cotham defence which was used to score their second try. With the conversion successful Kingswood now lead 12-8.

As the second half progressed the bout of flu that has swept through the Cotham Park side this week became more and more apparent. Tired legs and minds saw the penalty count increase and the game slip further from Cotham’s grasp. Despite this, the defence stood strong and apart from a converted penalty Kingswood were kept at bay.