Barnes 10 - 24 Redruth

Redruth played some good rugby in the first fifty minutes and had to show strong character to contain Barnes in the final thirty minutes to come home from South West London with a win.

The final 12 minutes were somewhat fraught with Redruth having three yellow cards as referee Rich Gordon who has refereed provincial rugby in New Zealand had to work hard as tensions on both sides rose in the hot and humid conditions.
Barnes who were twice held up over the line will wonder how they did not get at least a bonus point out of the game and they gave Redruth a stiff test on the day.

The Reds left the Recreation ground at 6:30 for the journey to Barnes and arrived to find the ground looking in good condition on a warm sunny day, they showed no effects of the bus journey and took the lead after five minutes with a penalty from Fraser Honey, not his best strike but it cleared the crossbar.

The Reds new back three of Cadgwith fisherman Will Trewin, Kyle Bradley from Penryn and Matt Blee formerly with Camborne all had good moments in attack and defence and looked comfortable playing at this level.
Redruth were controlling play in the first half, playing some interesting rugby, challenging the defence all over the field and were awarded a penalty try when a driving maul was collapsed near the line after 21 minutes.
Five minutes later more good driving play saw Jack Oulton feed Ben Fox on the blind side for the flanker to touchdown in the corner, Honey converting with a superb kick.
Barnes got on the scoreboard after 31 minutes with a penalty from Josh Hammett as the Reds led 17 - 3 at the break.

Playing towards the River Thames, in a great start to the second half good all round play from the Reds ended with a strong finish from Blee who touched down in the left hand corner with Honey converting with another tremendous kick to open up a 21 point lead.
Credit to Barnes who used their replacements well and had the better of the second half, they asked a lot of questions of the Reds defence and created openings but Redruth’s defence was determined and forced errors.
Skipper Sam Stevens was forced off with a cut above his eye that required five stitches after the match. With 12 minutes to go the pressure on the Reds started to tell with replacement Shaun Buzza shown a yellow card for a technical offence and Jess Tompsett suffered a similar fate 6 minutes later with the Reds unable to get out of their 22.
Eventually Barnes touched down a try following a driving maul that Hammett converted with a good kick from wide out on the left.
With a couple of minutes to play an unfortunate incident near the touchline on half way saw Sam Parsons yellow carded for a high tackle, while there appeared to be no malicious intent, the Barnes player was down for a long time receiving medical attention for a neck injury and had to be helped from the field of play.
Briefly down to 12 men on the field Redruth held out and were glad to hear the final whistle on an energy sapping day.

Barnes
Tries; Dean
Con; Hammett
Pen; Hammett
Yellow card; Ashcroft-Leigh
O Burgess; O Alcorn, J Souter, P Weightman, P O’Dell; J Hammett, J Davies; H Short, H Watson, F. Boyce, R Seabright (Capt), L Ashcroft-Leigh, J Cameron, T Donegan, C Harbison
Reps: G Dean, J Garrett, M Britton, O Foster, H Salisbury

Redruth
Tries: Penalty, Fox, Blee
Con; Honey 2
Pen; Honey
Yellow cards; Buzza, Tompsett, Parsons
W Trewin; K Bradley, J Simmons (Rep R Kevern 75 Min), S Parsons, M Blee; F Honey, J Oulton; T Phillips, R Brown (Rep M Oliver 62 Min), C Williams (Rep J Tompsett 49 Min), T Prisk (Rep C Fuca 64 Min), E Pascoe, B Fox, M Grubb (C Williams 76 Min), S Stevens (Capt) (S Buzza 38-40 Min & 49 Min).
Reps: S.Buzza, R.Kevern, M.Oliver, J.Tompsett, C.Fuca.