Redruth 29, Birmingham & Solihull 25

Redruth battled to a much needed win in an at times bad-tempered encounter played in difficult conditions, writes Bill Hooper.

Redruth’s Director of Rugby Nigel Hambly whilst pleased with win wasn’t too enamoured with his side’s performance, saying: “I thought it was a pretty ill-disciplined performance from us, we got the five points, that’s the good part, but we just keep making life hard for ourselves.

"When we exited we played some smart rugby but in these conditions we tried to run the ball, instead of booting the ball down the park and put ourselves under pressure.

Bees kicked off in a torrential downpour with the pitch cutting up within minutes, players were finding it difficult to keep their footing, whilst scrums slipped constantly.

Jack Jolly gave the Bees an early lead with a penalty, however Redruth struck back almost immediately when Jack Simmons carved his way through the Bees’ defence to score the opening try converted by Aaron Simmonds.

Jolly cut the deficit with his second penalty, but Redruth edged further ahead when Loma Kivalu finished off a catch-and-drive for the home side with Simmonds again on the money with the extras.

The Bees had some good pressure leading up to half-time and when Redruth were reduced to 14 men, with Nonu sent to the bin, they capitalised from a scrum near the Redruth line being awarded a penalty-try.

They went close again from a charged down clearance but were denied.

Redruth began the second half with a bang as Nonu, now returned, set up Simmons for his second try under the sticks, Simmonds again obliging with the conversion.

It looked as if Redruth had put the game to bed when they scored their fourth try from a catch-and-drive with Nonu in amongst the forwards getting the touchdown.

With the sun breaking through Bees launched a great attack which saw Corey Venus go in at the corner with Jolly adding a fine touchline conversion.

Simmonds then kicked a penalty to make it 29-20 to Redruth before the fracas that saw Howe red carded for the home side and Danny Wright yellow-carded for the Bees.

The visitors had the final say when Adam Nunney went over late on for an unconverted try.

The final whistle brought cheers of relief from the Redruth faithful.

Redruth: T Notman, B Janes, J Simmons, P Nonu, M Bowden, A Simmonds, R Coote; L Kivalu, M Gidlow (capt), J Tompsett, E Pascoe, T Prisk, B Fox, M Grubb, B Howe. Reps: C Williams, R Brown, S Stevens, A Hosking, C Gilbert.

Redruth: Tries - Simmons 2, Kivalu, Nonu. Cons - Simmonds 3. Pen - Simmonds.

Birmingham & Solihull: Tries - Pen-try, Venus, Nunney. Con - Jolly, Pens - Jolly 2.