Henley 65 Redruth 19
GIVEN Redruth's recent poor run of form, defeat at Henley was perhaps not unexpected.
Henley play a good brand of rugby, but it was still a surprise to see the Reds completely out thought, out muscled, out played and 60 points behind with barely an hour played.
Three tries in the final quarter though allowed Redruth to leave the field with some respect, after suffering their fifth successive defeat.
Redruth Director of Rugby Adrian Edwards must have been casting envious looks towards his opposite number, Nigel Dudding, who has a much larger squad at his disposal, backed up by a floodlit all-weather training pitch on site and regular good quality second team games to keep the squad match fit.
Fresher
Whereas Redruth have nine players who have started 20 or more games this season, Henley have just three. Their squad is fresher and ready for the final promotion push, with games against fellow contenders Hartpury College this Saturday and Worthing in May, they are well placed for automatic promotion.
Redruth's problems assembling a team began in midweek when Greg Goodfellow was given a three week ban for his sending off against Canterbury, adding to injuries for Murray Westren, Frazer Kellythorn and Steve Evans.
Prop Darren Jacques, who had been unwell all week, was required to start.
But despite the heavy defeat Reds' forwards coach Ashley Morcom was pleased with the way his depleted team stuck to their task. He said: "The key thing for us was that we never gave up and came away with 19 points. I felt that we stood off them a bit and let their big runners get up a head of steam and run right over the top of us. If we had chopped them down early it may have been a different game but we ended chasing the ball too much. We gave them too much respect.
"They are a very good side, you cannot take that away from them, they outplayed us. There was a mixture of things, bad decisions from us. Some of our players who manage things could not get in there and do it.
"Full credit to the guys they stuck at it and it showed in the last 15 minutes when we started to put some pressure on them. For some of our younger players they got a chance to learn what it is about at the top end of this league."
On a pleasant spring afternoon conditions at Dry Leas, just a good punt away from the River Thames and the base for Wasps A league games, was a fast track, ideally suited to Henley's style.
Redruth were well supported with a busload of fans making the journey to the Thames Valley, and two former captains PJ Gidlow and Mark Bright, both now at London Scottish, were also in the crowd.
A knock on by the Reds in the 22 in the opening minutes gave Henley a good position and after a reset Craig Williams was penalised, allowing Will Robinson to put the Hawks in front with a penalty close to the posts.
The signs were ominous for the visitors from the restart when Matt Payne made a lot of ground to take the Reds back to their own 22. Along with Josh McNally and Robbie Stapley, Payne frequently breached Redruth's fringe defence to suck in tacklers and open up space for the back division.
Referee Philip Davies showed Owen Hambly a yellow card for some out of character foul play after nine minutes and the Hawks took full advantage of the extra man to run in tries by Liam O'Neill and South African Xavier Andre, both converted by the left boot of Robinson, to see the hosts 17 points clear before Hambly's return.
Under pressure, Redruth were turning the ball over too cheaply and when they kicked the ball away Henley were ready to run it straight back at them and they did well to contain Hawks to just a further try by Payne, again converted by Robinson before the interval.
Just before the interval Redruth had chances but elected not to kick for goal and Richard Brown, in his 101st game, knocked on when taking the ball at full tilt just short of the line. Ben Drew, starting for the first time on the right wing, had a couple of good runs.
A foot injury saw Lewis Vinnicombe replaced by Ashley Hoskin at half time. with Paul Thirlby moving into the centre.
Whirlwind
In a whirlwind start to the second period, Henley ran in 36 points in 17 minutes with the Redruth powerless to hold their opposite numbers as the 19-year-old Wasps Academy player O'Neill and the hard-running Andre completed their hat-tricks.
Scrum Half Luke Carter darted over for his try and Richard Briggs had space to go around his man to score in the left hand corner. Robinson converted twice as Henley reached 60 points for the tenth time this season.
With both sides using all of their replacements, Redruth got into the game more as the patterns started to break up. Neil Broadbank ran well to touch down near the posts. Hoskin converted to give the travelling supporters something to cheer about.
After 73 minutes, a loose ball broke for Tom Notman who ran strongly down the left wing before touching down near the posts for Hoskin to convert.
Henley hit back three minutes later with a catch and drive try by Payne, and if Robinson had converted it would have taken Henley to 1,100 points.
In the final play of the game Hoskin intercepted and raced 40 meters for a try which he was unable to convert. But it was no more than a consolation for the Reds who will be hoping to get back to winning form at home to Southend on Saturday.
