Redruth 24 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 13
Redruth revel in typically wet, Cornish conditions and outmuscle Stortford to send them home for the first time from this tough venue, without a league point.
Stortford started brightly and early pressure led to a penalty, which Tom Banks kicked for a 3 point lead after 7 minutes. As the game went on, though the home side were able to assert themselves increasingly, aided, it has to be said by a series of errors from Stortford, not all of which could be explained by the difficult conditions. The scores were levelled after 23 minutes, when the home side settled for three points from a penalty for collapsing a maul, as it drove at the Stortford line. The resultant yellow card for Mark McCraith, though proved more costly, as Redruth managed to score a converted try from another driving maul 6 minutes later. This came after the visitors had spared the home team’s blushes, after an initial Redruth penalty had failed to reach touch, by totally bungling a clearance kick, compounded by a knock-on, as they tried to recover it, leading to a clear offside decision. The home side made sure of their second kick for touch, from which the try directly ensued. By this stage, the visitors, with their lineout struggling had to make do with scraps of possession, many of which, unfortunately were wasted through individual errors as the side struggled to put structure into their game, under increasing Redruth pressure. The home team, in contrast, generally showed great composure in possession and so it was that, after a poor Stortford attacking kick went directly into touch, they launched a rare sortie through their backs from the lineout on halfway to split the midfield defence and, when Johnny Neville made a tackle from a clearly offside position to thwart what looked a likely. try, it was no surprise that he too saw yellow after 35 minutes. The home team then reverted to plan A and launched a series of powerful thrusts at the Stortford line, around the fringes of several rucks and eventually, big flanker, Barrie John Chapman was able to force his way over under the posts for a converted try just before the halftime whistle, to take the score at the break to 17-3.
Boosted by an early miss by Redruth of an easy penalty shot at goal, Stortford fought back bravely and, with their set scrum now enjoying a strong advantage, they launched a series of attacks, with Tom Banks at the heart of many of them. Stout home defence held out for a while, but, when the visitors took a scrum against the head in the Redruth 22, they soon forced a penalty. Remarkably, given the travails they had suffered at the lineouts, Stortford went for touch, but the wisdom of this decision became apparent, with a cleanly won ball and a powerful drive across the try line for Dec Caulfield to touch down on 15 minutes. Banks’ difficult conversion attempt went wide, leaving a 9 point deficit and this was extended to sixteen on 30 minutes when Redruth capitalised on a rare scrum penalty to them to launch their own attack through their big forwards. Stortford’s 8 defended two driving mauls from 5 metre lineouts brilliantly, but, shortly after, the line was breached, following a bout of typically powerful individual drives by forward after forward was rounded off by massive substitute centre, Pale Nonu crashing over under the posts. Stortford showed their character, by bouncing straight back onto the attack and the formula of earlier in the half was repeated, when Matt Tomlinson touched down on 35 minutes from another driving maul, after a penalty from inside the Redruth 22 had been kicked to touch for a 5 metre lineout. The conversion attempt again flew narrowly wide, leaving the visitors 11 points behind. With time running out, only another try would be of any real value to the visitors and, with the rain now easing, they threw themselves onto the attack, causing considerable unease to the home defenders, but not enough, unfortunately, to bring the crucial score.
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