REDDITCH Rugby Club took a mixture of second team and veteran players across to Shirley to take on Old Yardleians 2nd team in a friendly.
The big home pack bossed the scrums in the opening exchanges with Redditch forced to defend their own line manfully to keep the scores level.
However, the Kingfishers went close to scoring the game’s first try when Aaron Atkinson kicked ahead only for a knock-on to deny the visitors the opening score.
Redditch eventually broke the deadlock when Tom McLarney cut through the Old Yardleians defence to score the first try of the match after the Kingfishers won the ball at a lineout.
And the visitors spent much of the remainder of the half in the Old Yardleians 22 but were unable to add to their five-point lead before the break.
The referee opted to remove a player from each team following the restart, putting player safety first after a suspected head clash.
And the home side scored their first try soon after as Redditch’s clearing kick failed to find touch and Old Yardleians’ number seven caught the ball on the move before racing in to dot down.
The conversion gave Old Yardleians a two-point lead with Atkinson denied at the other end after seeing his kick claimed on the home side’s try line.
Redditch missed with a penalty attempt late on as Old Yardleians claimed a narrow 7-5 victory in a competitive contest.
