Redditch RFC

Redditch made heavy work of this victory, despite dominating the scrums, having the lion's share of possession and territory they struggled to cope with a dogged FW defensive line that made life difficult.

R started on the front foot briskly, Will Heath slotting over a penalty kick to open the scoring, The pack followed that up with a commanding driving maul from a clean line out catch 15m out with Richie Beddard guiding his forwards, and the ball, over the line. 

The home pack dominated the set piece, shoving FW off their own ball on occasions but R failed to capitalise on the possession, handling wasn't at it's best and the visiting defence was very determined to keep them at bay.

The returning Jack Mertens had an active game in the centre with Player of the Match Cal Razzak both tackling strongly and asking questions in attack. A JM searching kick down field resulted in a home penalty which WH calmly converted to give R a 11 - 0 lead at the break.

The second half was error strewn from both sides with penalties evenly shared throughout the pitch but still it was stalemate with majority of the game being played in the centre third. Unable to get close to the R line FW had a drop gaol attempt that went wide, from the restart FW had another drop goal attempt this time successfully

The game turned after R had two yellow cards shown to them and had to defend manfully with 13 men. Though the tackles and defensive wall held firm, a cross field kick exposed their short numbers allowing FW to score a converted try. The remaining 15 min passed tensely, both sides aware that any mistake could be fatal.

It was to be the final play of the match that settled matters, a break from Will Heath fed Phil Lane who found Joe Morgan on the wing whose blistering pace finished the job off under the posts with WH converting with last kick of the game.

 

Joe Morgan outpaces the defence to settle the match for Redditch