Tough day at office

Some weeks are just not meant to be. Already without a number of key players, further late withdrawals through injury, flight delays and other reasons, resulted in a late call up to the starting 15 for Kane Meddings in the centres and a bench looking decidedly thin on the ground (if not around the waistline).

Aldridge started well with the offload game and some strong running from Josh Reynolds and Adam Reed cutting holes in the Linley defence, and Josh Hetherington (playing his first game since his broken hand) being stopped twice just short of the line. In fact the first two scores were very much against the run of play as firstly they were able to capitalise on a knee injury to Ben Eden who was forced off for 10 minutes and then noticed that Kane Meddings was playing with only one good leg in the centres.

However taking nothing away from this Linley side, they are playing the best rugby in our league at present and their physical presence t the set piece and around the ruck and maul area started to pay dividends. With the score at 33- 0 at half time spirits in the Aldridge camp were still high, however with Kanes thigh finally giving up the ghost we were forced into a shuffle around and thankfully the returning Lee Stokes slotting into the centres alongside Ryan Bowen.

Unfortunately the tries for Linley continued to flow, despite Aldridge playing most of the game in the Linley half, as their superior fitness, physical presence and the fact they had a 5 man bench who they were able to rotate on and off kept their team fresh. Despite Josh Reynolds now hobbling about, and Lea Ross nursing a bruised ego :-) after being stripped of the ball by their full back who sprinted 70 yards to score despite Josh's chase back, Aldridge refused to give up and following a powerful run and back of the hand offload from Neil Smith to Ed Tonks, firstly Adam Butler, then Josh Reynolds were held up short, before Lea Ross powered over for a consolation try (apparently the next try wins rule which was suggested was ignored by the referee).

With a final score of 71 -5 Linley look destined for promotion - most likely as champions - Aldridge RFC need to regroup for Market Drayton at home this week and for the Cup Semi Final against Civil Service the week after.

Head Coach Jon Arch said "Its been a tough week at the club - probably my hardest since joining in August... we have to shake off the feeling of apathy towards training and availability and refocus for the next 6 games! This week has just been a perfect storm of bad luck, unavailability, freak injuries and delayed flights! The 16 guys who pulled on the shirt on saturday did the club proud - no-one could ask anymore of them, and if anything I let them down. We compromised the first team to ensure we got a 2's out; we cannot go into league games without a 3 man bench minimum - its simply not fair on the players ! !

We will regroup this week at training, and make sure we go into this weekends fixture with the gusto and belief we can and will win with style - "