By Graham Cox After waiting 96 years to win another county championship crown last season , Kent secured back-to-back Bill Beaumont Division 1 titles with a 31-30 victory over Yorkshire at Twickenham on Saturday. It’s the first time they’ve retained the title, and their fifth success since the oldest domestic competition in rugby union began in 1889. The lead changed hands on no fewer than eight occasions.
However, it was on 64 minutes, shortly after Sam Evans had put Kent ahead once more with his fourth penalty, when the decisive moment came. With a further three points on offer, Ben Fryatt opted for the quick tap and, catching Yorkshire off guard, found Leo Fielding who, in turn, offloaded to Garry Jones for the Canterbury wing’s second try and a six-point lead. Yorkshire struck back by dominating the closing stages, and with two sin-binnings reducing Kent to 13 for most of the final 10 minutes, great handling and a lovely inside ball from wing Pete Hudson saw Leeds Tykes’ centre Henry McNab slip over to the left of the uprights.
However, Lewis Minikin missed the conversion, and when Kent went through numerous phases in an attempt to close out the game, and were penalised for holding on with seconds remaining, the Hull Ionians’ centre, who’d kicked a couple of beauties earlier on, saw his strike at goal slide across the face of the uprights and wide. Yorkshire had had the better of the opening period, with two tries from Sam Taylor giving them a 15-9 lead at the.
