Leamington 27 Kidderminster 31: The story of the season as Leamington’s improvement comes too late in the day

Kidderminster are tricky opponents and they set their stall out early on with a try in the corner.

Leamington responded with a Jamie Harrison run and the hosts kept up the pressure with Alex Carroll’s delicate chip kick almost putting Harrison in.

From the lineout, Tom Greevy claimed the ball and set his forwards on a rumble towards the line which eventually allowed skipper Danny Phillips to power over.

Nathan Earland was just off target with the conversion attempt.

With 22 minutes on the clock and with the game being played at breakneck speed, Leamington overstretched themselves in defence and allowed the visitors a converted score.

The conditions were ideal for flowing, running rugby and the hosts had plenty of pace on either wing, with Harrison and Simon Mallard keen to stretch the visitors’ defence at every opportunity.

Carroll made a couple of openings, first to allow Tom Greevy a trademark charge at the opposition and then to get the ball to Dan Kane for a powerful drive forward.

With the half coming to an end, Leamington slotted over a penalty to reduce the arrears to four points at the interval.

The opening skirmishes of the second period brought woe for the hosts when influential forward Craig Smith had to leave the field with concussion and then Carroll was forced to take a breather following a clash of heads.

Initially, Leamington seemed to be able to cope with the disruption, especially when Harrison and Earland combined to send Tom Daplyn in for a try.

However, shortly after, they found themselves under a barrage from Kidderminster, which led to them scoring a converted try.

More of the same came the way of the hosts and they were grateful to Earland’s boot to eventually clear the danger.

Leamington then had to cope with a reduction in personnel following a yellow-card infringement and did extremely well to prevent Kidderminster from adding to their tally.

Earland was on hand to clear his lines again, Harrison intervened to halt another dangerous incursion and when all seemed lost, the visitors gave away a penalty on Leamington’s tryline, allowing Earland once again to clear the danger.

Surprisingly, when Spa were back to full strength, they conceded two scores to seemingly gift the game to the opposition.

However, with the the season entering its final minutes, Leamington began to turn the tide and Gareth Shuttleworth fired in one try from a quickly taken penalty, which Earland converted with a stylish drop-kick.

Then Carroll created space for Patrick Northover to score, with Earland adding the extras.

But, unfortunately for Leamington, they had found their extra gear too late in the day.

Leamington Spartans’ match against Leicester Lions marked Simon David’s final appearance at Moorefields with the 50-year-old hanging up his boots to take on the role of trainee groundsman.

David started with the club at junior level and, aside from a year at Northampton, has been at the club ever since, clocking up close to 1,000 games for the club.

Despite a heavy defeat for the club’s 3rds against quality opposition, boosted, it was rumoured, by several former Leicester Tigers players, the club gave David a good send-off with several old teammates pulling their boots back on for his swansong.