The antithesis of the old adage victory from the jaws of defeat was never more true than at sunny Heslam Park, as new-look Kenilworth, having outplayed their opponents in almost all facets of the game, surrendered an eleven-point lead in the dying throes of normal time, and thereby went down by a narrow margin in their opening fixture of this season's National Three Midlands campaign. However, there was much to admire in the performance of both forwards and backs, with some key absentees and others in unfamiliar positions, not least their running rugby, which yielded six tries in an exciting encounter (writes Bob Jones).

Newly-promoted Scunthorpe were fast out of the blocks and within sixty seconds, with the Kenilworth defence caught napping, they went ahead with a neatly-worked but unconverted try by wing James Wade. The north Lincolnshire side continued in the ascendancy for about ten minutes, shortly after which Kenilworth drew level with an equally well-worked try by Dave Clements, after good work by Jai Purewal, Luke Watts and Mike Rust. An offside by the Ks on the quarter-hour allowed Mark Woollard to edge Scunthorpe back into the lead. The ensuing exchanges were about even, and it was seven minutes before added time in the first half before Kenilworth first regained the lead with an unconverted try by Gareth Renowden, which owed much to the skill of Toby Handley and a great break by Jed Boyle, then went further ahead when Boyle harried the defence before collecting a rolling ball to touch down. Joss Andrews added the extras. In time added by referee Gareth Holsgrove, Kenilworth conceded a free-kick. The ball was transferred to the elusive Rewiti Viamoso, whose storming run was capitalized on by Tom Foster. His try was converted by Woollard, making the score 15-17 at the interval.

The opening exchanges of the second half were scrappy, with the visitors spoiling a couple of promising moves by a combination of over-elaboration and poor passing. The hosts lost lock Matt Power to the sin-bin on six minutes. New coach Jason Button introduced Jack Gibson into the back-row for Bobby Thompson a minute later. After 15 minutes, Clements crossed again after a deft pick-up, Andrews converting to stretch the lead to nine points. Not to be outdone, Scunthorpe closed the gap once more with a Woollard penalty goal after the Ks failed to release the ball. The alternate pattern of scoring continued when Clements finished a sweeping move with his third try, this one unconverted, as the game entered its final quarter. Russell Clarke replaced Purewal and Marcus Andrews appeared in place of Nick Collett. Scunthorpe would not be subdued, and following a penalty to touch deep in Kenilworth territory, prop Al Fagan drove over for a try that was converted by Woollard, leaving them four points adrift on 27 minutes.

Ten minutes later, Kenilworth must have thought that they were home and hosed, after a great Renowden break released Rust. The flier was away and in under the posts, Andrews converting, to restore an eleven-point advantage. It was not to be. A combination of wrong options, plus suspect defending, allowed Scunthorpe to cross twice in the remaining six minutes. First full-back Neal was first to the ball as it dropped over the Ks line, then Foster capped a neat move with a powerful touch-down. Woollard converted both tries to leave the home side victorious.

Kenilworth: Dodd, Collett, Greavy, Hobbins, Wadey, Watts, Parkes, Thompson, Handley, Andrews, Rust, Purewal, Renowden (Capt), Boyle, Clements. Replacements: Gibson, Andrews, Clarke.