Kenilworth bounced back from their County Cup final disappointment with a dominant performance against fifth place Old Halesonians on a grey, chilly afternoon at Glasshouse Lane.

Again the home side were missing a couple of key players but this seemed to have little effect as they raced into the lead after just four minutes through centre Ed Hannam who converted his own try.

Hannam caused problems for the visiting defence all afternoon with his hard running and excellent place kicking.

The opening try was soon followed by another created by a big carry through the middle from giant lock Lewis Kavanagh, which was finished by centre Nathan Tilsley who ran a fine supporting line, again Hannam's kick was good.

After a searing break from Hannam, Kenilworth stole a lineout deep in the visitors 22.

A dropped ball led to a scrum that was obliterated by the home pack and the kick and drive try by hooker Tilt from the resultant lineout penalty was a formality.

Another promising attack saw impressive flanker Chaz Hudson just miss taking the ball through to the line, Old Halesonians secured the loose ball and after a couple of desperate tackles, they scored a good try in the corner with debutant home winger Yousef Shehabi sent to the sin bin.

Kenilworth again fluffed their lines in attack a few minutes later and gift-wrapped an interception pass to the quick visiting backs. Another desperate chase back led to a card for full back Ben Harrison and a try for the visitors which was converted.

Despite dominating most of the first half Kenilworth found themselves just 5 points ahead and down to 13 men at half time.

However they came out for the second period in determined mood with Hannam settling any nerves with a long range penalty to make the score 22-14.

More pressure close to the Old Hales line saw the pack try to bash their way over and it was Hudson who eventually barrelled over for a converted try.

Hudson was involved in most of Kenilworth's attacking phases and was also strong in defence with some big tackles. Another penalty gave the home side the chance to kick for the corner and skipper Bobby Thompson strolled over in the left corner after a well worked front peel move.

Kenilworth were now well on top and a big score was looking likely when prop David Bromfield slipped a lovely flat pass to Hudson who used his long frame to stretch over the line for another try, converted this time by fly half Ben Leahy.

However the game fell into a rather flat period with a few dropped balls and missed lineouts frustrating the home side. This seemed to spill over into a few altercations between the two sides which the referee was struggling to manage.

A wonderful kick pass from Leahy landed perfectly in lightning winger David Opoko-Fordjour's hands and he scorched in from 45m with Hannam adding the extra points.

Old Halesonians managed to burrow over for a rather disputed try on the final whistle which was converted to leave the final score at 48-21.

This was a good result against a decent side with the bonus point victory seeing Kenilworth rise to second place in the league, after undefeated Stoke On Trent lost away at Hereford.

Kenilworth travel to Stoke this Saturday for another huge match in the Midlands One West title race.

The impressive Men's 2XV won comfortably 54-0 away at Shipston on Stour and are in great form going into this Sunday's County 2XV Cup Final against Sutton Coldfield (at Broadstreet RFC - kick off 2.15pm)

Kenilworth Women's 1XV travelled to Lichfield on Saturday and lost 33-0, their league is proving to be a big step up but they continue to be very competitive in all of their matches as they search for their next victory.