Erdington travelled to Redditch today to take on their second team. From the first kick it soon became apparent that both teams were up for a competitive game, with both packs taking it in turns to go forward and neither team taking a backward step. The first points of the game went to Erdington with some dominant forward play and Ross Graham touching down over the white wash taking a few of the Redditch pack with him. Dan Bruce converting. Erdington then appeared to step up a gear and again the forwards provided a good solid platform for the back line to start making ground and progressing up the pitch. This was rewarded with a great try spotted down in the corner by Curtis Roberts, unfortunately due to the tight angle the conversion was narrowly missed.
Erdington 12 points up without a response, this then appeared to give Redditch a wake up call that Erdington were up for a game. Redditch’s forwards started to keep the ball in their hands with some dominant forward work they dotted down for their first try, unfortunately not converted. Turn around Erdington 12 Redditch 5.
The second half started and Erdington upped the tempo again. The ball fell loose and Andrew Bricknall picked up the scraps, a foot chase ensued but Brickers was far to fast for the chasing players and he scored under the posts with Dan T converting the try. Some more hard work, both in the forwards and back line, Erdington shifted the ball along the line with some fancy footwork, sublime intertwined passing and offloads. This saw the back line go the full length of the pitch finishing with a try dotted down under the post by Dan Thewlis, who duly converted his own try.
The score line remained pretty dormant for a while but again Erdington stepped up a gear and with some solid forward work saw Redditch give away a penalty about 10 yards out. The call went out but unfortunately the ball was spilled forward, and from the knock on advantage Redditch ran the full length of the pitch to score under the posts, try converted.
The last word goes to the forwards who disrupted the Redditch ball and turned it over right in their 22. A couple of rucks later saw the ball picked up by Phil Cleghorne who from all of 12 inches tucked the ball up his jumper and took on most of the Redditch pack to touch down over the white wash, try unconverted.
Final Score Redditch 12 Erdington 31.
The game was played in great spirit with both sets of players complimenting each other after the game.
Man of the match goes to Chris Jones, who playing at blindside flanker did all the unseen work coming up with turnovers that handed the ball over to Erdington in some attacking positions.
Other mentions must go to a couple of new players John Badland and Kamil who played their first game in an Erdington shirt today, both putting in an excellent shift.