Although on paper a close game looked to be in prospect, both schools having had similar records against common opposition, Kingswood School had too much firepower up front, running in seven tries against a King’s College, Taunton side whose forward pack was depleted by early injuries.

With a bitterly cold wind from the north and the sun sinking over the Blackdown Hills, King’s kicked off and enjoyed early territorial advantage, but lost hooker Charlie Agbo to a knee injury after a few minutes. With a dearth of front row replacements available, uncontested scrums were used thereafter. The visitors soon got onto the scoreboard, flanker Gregor Morton and fly half Ollie Milner linking effectively to set up a drive by the pack into the left corner, with No 8 Tom Royston diving over for the opening try. The touch judges signalled that they were satisfied that Milner’s touchline conversion attempt had just cleared the bar, but the referee apparently disagreed.

Scrum half Gwyn Parks had the opportunity to narrow the gap with a penalty, but his kick drifted wide,. Play was stopped soon afterwards when King’s No 8 Harry Magill sustained a nasty looking knee injury, and the game had to be switched to another pitch. After Milner had missed with two penalty attempts from the tee, he finally stretched Kingswood’s lead with a try, crashing over under the posts and making no mistake with the conversion. The home side continued to attract the referee’s attention at the breakdown, and Milner’s penalty kick took play deep into the 22, where centre Oli Akiwumi muscled his way through and stretched to score, Milner converting.

Half time: King’s College, Taunton 0-19 Kingswood School

The powerful Kingswood pack continued to dominate after the interval, driving to the line before Milner again forced his way over and converted his own try from wide out. There then followed what was arguably the best try of the game, with Kingswood making use of turnover ball on halfway, switching play left where outside centre Lucas Reeman stepped through the defence before offloading to full back Indy Sankosik who scored in the corner.

King’s made every effort to move the ball wide from the scraps of possession that they were enjoying. Their captain Jack West looked dangerous with ball in hand, but he was closely marked. The smallish pitch probably made it hard to create an overlap. Perhaps inevitably, another Kingswood try followed when a pass was intercepted in midfield by Morton who ran in unopposed. Frustration unfortunately began to show and some careless chatter from the home side led first to a penalty reversal and then to a yellow card before both sides received a general lecture from the referee.

There was just time for a final score, hooker Toby Thurston collecting a loose ball at the front of a line out in the right corner and diving over. Milner took his personal points tally to 22 with an excellent kick from the touchline.

Full time: King’s College, Taunton 0-47 Kingswood School

Peter Crawshaw

King’s College, Taunton:

George Willis, Charlie Agbo, Tom Maybery, Cameron Smith, Charles Collins, Seb Manger, George Williams, Harry Magill, Gwyn Parks, William Knill, Jack Gunningham, Tom Pittman, Andrew Lake, Bradley Lynch, Jack West (Capt)

Kingswood School, Bath:

Jak Jarahpeet, Toby Thurston, Ken Odo, James Padkin, Rory Crowther, Gregor Morton, Matthew Williams, Tom Royston, Joe Hanhauser, Ollie Milner (Capt), Jack Kenney, Oli Akiwumi, Lucas Reeman, Alex Cameron, Indy Sankosik