Redditch RFC

Redditch could not repeat their performance of the previous week and fell painfully short in this tough mid table encounter. 

BC were first out of the blocks with some very sharp direct running which had R tackling at their best but enable to gain any real possession of their own to work with . The home side's adventurous start was rewarded with the opening try wide on the right wing.

R had the heavier pack which dominated scrums and on another day they might have been rewarded with scrum penalties. Archie Beddard cut the lead with a penalty kick but it was scant reward for their possession and ground earned.

A penalty for a high tackle gave BC the opportunity to extend their lead to 8-3 at the break, by which time R had already had to replace Parker with Atkinson in the back row due to injury. It was a scrappy game with little excite the crowd. The last play of the half had R take a scrum penalty option instead of a kick at goal, it came to nothing and could prove to be a crucial decision.

A couple more penalty kicks by AB edged R into an 8-9 lead, though BC snatched the lead back with a quick tap penalty catching the R defence off guard. Some more injuries forced changes to the visitors which knocked them off balance for a while but momentum and territory were restored and pressure brought to bear on the home side try line . A fine charge down resulted in Aaron Atkinson diving on the loose ball to score giving R the slender lead again.

BC slowly clawed their way back up the pitch and calmly slotted a penalty kick in the dying moments to just get over the line and the see-saw tipped back in their favour

It was a decent performance that just didn't click by R, on another day they could have had a better result. MoM was Sean Madden for a solid all round game and some punishing tackles.