Redruth coach Morcom left frustrated by damaging defeat at Canterbury

Redruth forwards coach Ashley Morcom was clear in his assessment of the Reds' display as they went down to a 20-12 defeat at Canterbury on Saturday that knocks their National League Two South promotion chances.

"It was very disappointing, you cannot take anything away from it, we under-performed and maybe they over performed," said Morcom.

"Maybe we should have kicked the corners more, we did it once and they struggled to get out and we won a penalty from it.

"We knew what Canterbury were about, we had a game-plan, but it did not pay off."

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Making their first visit to Merton Lane, Redruth found the pitch soft after heavy rain. A sluggish start saw Canterbury grab the initiative with David Devlin-Jones creating a try for Kwaku to touchdown in the third minute, Scott Browne converting from the left touchline.

Prompted by Fiji's most capped player, Nicky Little, Canterbury played some decent rugby and for much of the first quarter Redruth were on the back foot. It was no surprise when the hosts increased their lead with an unconverted try by Jim Green following a pick and drive on the Reds' line after 19 minutes.

Once Redruth imposed themselves on the game, kicking into the Canterbury 22, the Kent side struggled to get out, conceding two penalties before a five-metre scrum gave Tom Duncan the platform to power over for his 19th try of the season.

A hamstring injury forced Duncan off just before the interval but the writing was on the wall as the Reds went into the break trailing 12-5. At the start of the second half, Canterbury immediately took play to the Reds' line and skipper Wim Baars burrowed over for an unconverted try in the left hand corner.

Redruth showed good spirit, Owen Hambly was getting through a tremendous amount of work in the back row, and for a period they were able to play in the manner that has brought them so much success this season.

Retaining the ball through a number of phases, Redruth created a score for Fraser Kellythorn, who ran strongly to touch down between the posts. Paul Thirlby converted to pull the Reds back into the game at 17-12 after 51 minutes.

A foolish incident in the 56th minute led to red cards for Redruth's Greg Goodfellow, for an alleged butt, and Canterbury flanker Jesse Liston, for punching in retaliation.

Brown popped over a penalty from in front of the posts for a high tackle on 62 minutes to put the result beyond doubt.

With Thirlby playing at scrum-half, Redruth never threw the towel in, enjoying a lot of possession in the final quarter – but it was all in their own half.