DK taught harsh lesson

9:42am Thursday 31st January 2008

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Dudley Kingswinford were handed a harsh lesson away at Loughborough Students, as they suffered their first defeat under the guidance of the new coaching team of Neil Shillingford and Mark Lockley.

DK had climbed off the bottom of the Midlands Division One table following back-to-back wins but a 55-19 hammering away to the league leaders sent them back to the foot of the league.

DK who giving a league debut to Stefan Shillingford on the left wing kicked-off and were almost immediately 5-0 down. Students' full-back Grant Pointer caught the ball, passed and was then on the end of a miss move to power over in the corner. The same player dropped a goal on five minutes.

DK seemed to rally well but were caught cold again when they left a gap in the centre. Pointer made an incisive break to feed centre Jake Guestella for the try before adding the conversion for 15-0 after 15 minutes. A poor defensive kick was run back at DK on 21 minutes culminating in Students' left-wing Chris Smyth running in from 50 metres. Two minutes later Smyth scored again.

The Students seemed unstoppable and when fly-half Steve Collins broke brilliantly on 26 minutes to create yet another huge gap, flanker Dave Hughes was on hand to touch down the Students' fifth try, Pointer again converting for 34-0.

The sixth try of the half came in stoppage time when Collins hoisted a pin-point cross-kick to second-row Simon Pitfield who out-jumped the cover to collect the ball and show a good turn of pace to run in under the posts, which was converted to give them a 41-0 half-time lead.

The hosts scored a seventh try in their first attack of the second half through Hughes and added another shortly afterwards when skipper Dan Falvey charged down Pete Stinton Jnr's desperate attempt to clear to score.

The withdrawal of the Students' mercurial fly-half Collins on 56 minutes due to injury coincided with DK's first real spell of concerted pressure in the game. After 57 minutes they pushed the Students' pack back over their goal line but before the ball could be touched down for a try, the Students open-side flanker Jamie Thompson attempted to kick the ball out of the scrum leaving the referee little option but to award DK a penalty try which Cameron Pimlow converted.

DK spent the remainder of the game attacking and in the last minute prop Ben Connett broke from a maul to send Pimlow in for an unconverted try.

The visitors scored again with seconds left when Ben Connett cleverly intercepted a Students'attacking pass to canter in under the posts for a converted try.