Winscombe defeated Kingswood 27-15 in the Combination Cup.

Winscombe 27 pts

Kingswood 15 pts

KINGSWOOD, of Gloucester League One, rocked the home team with a penalty in front of the posts after six minutes in this Combination Cup clash,

Winscombe quickly got back into the game with forwards Chris Aske, Dan Fryer, Simon Thompson and Adam Scrase prominent. Scrase went on to give a man of the match performance winning turnovers and scoring two tries.

They took the lead on nine minutes when Owen Howell made ground and fed James Carter, who put Lucas Humphreys in for a try. Soon after, Aske put Howell into a gap to find Carter in support. Scrase took the final pass to run 20 metres for a converted try.

Winscombe were soon on the attack again after Fryer and Aske gained ground. Howell and House combined to find space for Flower and Humphreys was held up just short of the line. The recycled ball went to the opposite wing where Scrase touched down for his second try.

Kingswood’s restart was kicked dead to give Winscombe a put-in on halfway from which Flower made a good run. Further good play saw Thompson drive over from a ruck to take the score to 22-3 at half-time.

After the break, Kingswood came back strongly. They closed the gap after nine minutes with a converted try. Winscombe replied when Phil Peat skilfully picked up the ball off his toes to accelerate away and offload to House to run in for a spectacular try.

With a quarter remaining, Kingswood took the game to their opponents, forcing them to give away a series of penalties which resulted in a yellow card for Scrase. They sensibly elected for a scrum, from which they scored a try.

The Winscombe line was soon under pressure again and they were indebted to Ryan Robinson for some excellent line-out work as they held out for a hard-fought victory.