Redruth 17, Worthing 28

A hat-trick of tries for Worthing by winger Curtis Barnes plus the steady boot of goal-kicker Matt Mclean gave the Raiders a first-ever win at Redruth, and with it a season double over a Reds side that continues to be out of sorts and leaves Redruth well and truly in the bottom half of the table, writes Bill Hooper.

Redruth made the better start with an early unconverted try scored by full back Tom Notman following good work from centre Jack Simmons.

Worthing soon replied when the electric Barnes weaved a path from his own half to the Redruth posts for his first try, giving Mclean a simple conversion.

The Worthing half-backs of Matt Walsh and Jack Forrest proved a problem for Redruth all afternoon whilst in mid-field the silky running of centre Kiba Richards was a constant threat.

Redruth suffered a further blow when they lost influential scrum-half Jack Oulton to an ankle injury, before Mclean stretched the lead with a penalty.

It got worse for the home side when prop Craig Williams was sin-binned towards half-time and then compounded when Barnes was put in space to go over for his second try out wide to increase the visitor’s lead.

Worthing put the Reds under huge pressure early in the second-half and when a half charged down clearance fell into the hands of Barnes the winger ghosted through some lacklustre tackling to complete his hat-trick of tries.

Mclean was again on the money with the extras as he was with a penalty soon after.

Redruth needed a quick reaction and it came through Notman with his second try off an inside pass from replacement Aaron Simmonds, who went on to slot the conversion.

With their tails up Redruth drove hard at the Worthing line as the Raiders lost hooker Jordan Gibson to the bin, eventually Redruth centre Connor Gilbert kicked through to score an unconverted try.

Mclean’s third penalty towards the end confirmed the win for the Sussex side.

Redruth head coach Pale Nonu was left disappointed, saying: “We did some good things but we let ourselves down with some basic errors. We seem to be in a bit of a rut at the moment the lads are going to have to work even harder to get back to where they want to be.”

Redruth are again at home on Saturday when they entertain Guernsey with a 1pm kick-off to assist the island side with their travel plans.

Redruth: T Notman, B Janes, J Simmons, C Gilbert, M Bowden, R Kevern, J Oulton; L Kivalu, R Brown (capt), C Brown, E Pascoe, J Heazelton, M Gidlow, S Stevens, B Fox. Reps: E Salt, J Tompsett, L Hattam, A Hosking, A Simmonds.

Redruth: Tries - Notman 2, Gilbert. Con - Simmonds.

Worthing: Tries - Barnes 3. Cons - Mclean 2. Pens - Mclean 3.