DUDLEY Kingswinford RFC opened their National Three Midland campaign at home to South Leicester and soon realised what life will be like in the new league.

Defence will be key and on this occasion the visitors proved too strong for the home side to breakthrough, with on many occasions two or three defenders converging on the ball carrier.

With virtually the same squad that swept all before them last season, a steep learning curve will be required to mount a similar campaign this time out. There was no disgrace in losing as the visitors were league leaders for a long period last season and only fell away at the end.

Without last season’s top point’s scorer Gareth Bown and top try scorer Stefan Shillingford, league debuts were handed to colts centre Greg Lewis and wing Duncan Chance having made a full recovery from his broken jaw injury sustained in his brief appearance as a replacement against Whitchurch last season.

Jordan Brookes returned at scrum half following two seasons with Loughborough Students in National Two with Adam Blackford also making a return to first team rugby after last season spent coaching the colts.

Winning the toss and electing to play into the surprisingly strong wind, the home side found themselves under early pressure conceding a penalty almost from the kick off which the visitor’s fly half Mark Ward pushed wide of the post.

After absorbing early pressure the home side came into the game with some strong driving play and were rewarded for their efforts, when scrum half Jordan Brookes squeezed through the narrowest of gaps to score close in which was converted by fly half Jon Higgins to make it 7-0.

But the home side were conceding too many penalties to get any control of the game relying on desperate defence to keep the visitors at bay.

From one penalty on 11 minutes Mark Ward converted to post the first score for the visitors.

The game ebbed and flowed with little continuity but increasing pressure from the visitors resulted in a fine try by their dynamic left wing Kyle Coltman, who appeared in the centre at pace cutting through the floundering DK defence to score close in, Mark Lord adding the conversion as South Leicester got ahead.

The home side were coming under increasing pressure and a misunderstanding between full back Simon Fletcher and Duncan Chance from a high kick nearly resulted in another try for the visitors.

South Leicester increased the pressure and just before half time were rewarded with a further try when second row Stuart Bale appeared in the centre to receive the scoring pass and stroll in between the posts.

The visitors opened the second half strongly and laid siege to the DK line but resolute home defence thwarted the attacks.

From this stage in the game the visitors then appeared to dramatically change their tactics and resorted to a very defensively minded approach more intent on containing the home side.

Maybe a change at fly half was the reason as Mark Lord was replaced by Rikki Aley at half time and he seemed content to kick for the corners to keep DK away from their line.

However, he did land one long penalty from the 10 metre line into the wind to increase the visitor’s lead.

The home side continued to apply the pressure and both Jordan Brookes and Jon Higgins were held up just short of the line.

However, from promising attacking positions either penalties or wrong options cost the home side dearly with the visitors line at their mercy. Even when the visitors were down to thirteen men following the sin binning of two of their back row DK could not find the key to unlock the resolute visitors defence.