Redditch RFC

The last game of the season for the Kingfishers saw them travel to Evesham, where they narrowly finished second in a game shaped by the wind.

The home side opened the scoring with a score out wide though R hit straight back with Will Spires, Cal Razzak and Will Heath combining perfectly to release Joe Morgan to sprint clear of the defence. 

The R pack was dominant throughout marching the E pack back regularly. From one such surge Matt Allen made even more ground,  setting the platform for Mikey Adams to score out wide. The wind was not a friend to any of the goal kickers on the day.

E bounced back though, another try out wide levelled the scores before R restored their lead when M Allen scored from another dominant scrum. However the pendulum swung back to E when their centre wove a path through the R back line to score under the posts for the first converted try of the day.

R's bonus point try came from M Allen, taking a quick tap penalty an audacious chip and gather saw him score under the sticks to give Will Heath a easy conversion. But yet again, E hit back with a converted try of their own to take the lead at the break 24-22.

The ever gusting wind played its part in the next two tries, a long kick for territory led to another driving scrum and another try for M Allen. Then a penalty kick to touch from E held up in the wind and fooled all but Jon Beale who caught the kick in his own half and ran the distance to the try line untouched.

E were not beaten, though their pack came off second best they managed to spin the ball wide and found space to score another. Archie Beddard used the breeze nicely to slot over a penalty kick to take a 6 point lead but in the dying minutes another overlap saw the hosts sneak over the line for a converted try and 1 point lead they held on to for final few contentious minutes.

The result summed up the season R have had, so close but not close enough. Redditch picked up 6 bonus points across the season for finishing within one score of the winners, more than any other side. Six more converted tries across those games could have put them in the top handful in the league, which should their minimum target for next season.

Awards night is Sat 20th Ap, see Fitzy for tickets, with an AGM the Thurs after, 25th Ap