Aldridge fall in Quarter Finals

Leicestershire based Birstall RFC deservedly came out winners on a cold misty day at Bourne Vale but it could have been so very different.

Twice in the first half Birstall went down to 14 men but Aldridge failed to turn the numerical advantage into points as a number of gilt edged chances went begging. Adam Reed was ever reliable with the boot and Aldridge were soon 6 - 0 up, however after a wayward offload, Birstall turned defence into attack quickly and their big powerful winger raced 80 yards to score a converted try. Again Reed pushed Aldridge back in front before again Birstall seized on a loose ball and broke away to score. However at 12-9 at half time, Aldridge should have been confident on pushing on in the second half.

However it wasn't to be, within 15 minutes of the restart Birstall had scored 2 tries as they started to win the collision area, and despite a 4th penalty for Reed which briefly gave the home team some hope, chances and possession started to dry up.

Birstalls loose forwards began to take control with some powerful running, and it was off one of these breaks that Aldridge Number 8 Ben Husthwaite was Red Carded after some theatrical appealing from the Birstall player for 'contact to the eye' although to everyone watching it looked more like a tackle with an attempt to rip the ball which resulted in the contact.

With a numerical advantage, Aldridge heads went down and Birstall pushed on to victory.

Final Score: Aldridge RFC 12 Birstall RFC 35

[i]Head Coach Jon Arch...
"Sometimes you lose to a better side, and Birstall were the better side today; they soaked up our first half pressure and capitalised on our mistakes which at this level you can't afford to make. Nor did the game change on the Red Card, which i don't believe the referee saw, i think he reacted to the appeals from the player, and it certainly wasn't a game which justified 4 Yellow Cards and a Red in my opinion.

Our preparations were not as we wanted for this game, we lost 2 players on thursday through injury and a further one on saturday morning and had to reshuffle the back line, but things like this we have to deal with - and i will hold my hands up and say I got selection wrong today.

Disappointing for me is that we lost all 'go forward' in the second half, and we looked leggy in the last 20 minutes. We have to deal with big physical sides better and we have to start putting in game changing hits !

The guys are disappointed, obviously, but we regroup on tuesday and get our focus back on a really tough weekend ahead of us as we travel to 2nd Place Rugeley in the league."
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