Sat 29 Jan 2022
Redditch's bid to vie for a top two slot was thwarted by a Greyhounds team who had similar aspirations. The R squad has been plagued with injuries of late so many of this weekend's squad found themselves playing out of position but within the first 15 min the situation got even worse.
Playing with a driving but intermittent wind at their backs gave R the impetus to play deep in the G half but although the wind assisted deep kicking it didn't help handling and R struggled to keep possession to be able to mount any meaningful attacks. G were eager, active and sharper than the visitors so whenever mistakes were made they were capitalised upon rapidly, counter attacks mounted keeping ball in hand as much as possible.
Skipper Matt Allen suffered a match ending shoulder injury early on which necessitated another positional shuffle and although the determination remained, the guile was missing. Fly Half Will Heath fed his back line well and put in some searching kicks, but too often possession was given back to their hosts who slowly made ground only for R to tackle hard, steal the ball, put it back into the G half for the sequence to be repeated.
Drafted into the back row, Will Baillon and Tom McClarney ably assisted the ever active Mitchel Ferris, the front five had a busy afternoon in evenly matched scrummages but G had the edge in both experience and fitness, having a large squad that they utilised to the full.
It was just before the half time that the G pressure eventually told, crisp handling created a gap between the posts which resulted in a 7-0 lead at the break.
If G thought they were going to capitalise on the wind and wounded visitors and pile on the tries they were very mistaken. R's defence was watertight, neither side was able to put together anything that really threatened, even with R a man down due a yellow card G were unable to make the advantage count.
As the half drew on it was R who slowly built, Baillon had some determined runs, props and locks took their turn in pushing forward and out wide Aaron Atkinson and Leo Fanthome made breaks and it looked as if they were getting close to getting a vital try to at least claim a draw, but in the last play of the half with R on a break up the wing the ball was dislodged and picked up for the home winger to score unopposed and not only secure the game but also deny R a losing bonus point.
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