14 Man Aldridge battle to victory over very physical Yardley & District side

A game of highs and lows but pure excitement from the first minute to the last...

The lows: from the first kick off Aldridge opted to run it, one loose pass and with less than 40 seconds on the clock Aldridge are 5 nil down... A scrum which so far this season was systematically dismantled by the large aggressive Yardley pack...The rock of the pack Alex Reed forced off the pitch within 10 minutes after a late hit damaged his shoulder... A passive defence which allowed Yardley to run at will at us... and a red mist moment from skipper for the day Lea Ross in reacting to one of the off the ball 'incidents' which the referee failed to spot all afternoon.

The Highs: The fact that being down to 14 men for over 70 minutes only one team continued to play rugby - with HEART, STYLE and PASSION ! !... The half back pairing of Brad Russell and Harry Baldock were simply outstanding... The running lines of Ben Drinkwater, Dan McKenna, Nick Yates, Adam Morris and Josh Reynolds... The work rate and tackling of Ryan Bowen, Man of the Match Lee Stokes and Ben Giles...

...but most importantly the fact that with the scores tied at 22-22 in the 80th minute and in our 22 we still had the 'balls' to run it, and run it we did, firstly Adam Morris and Dan Beggan made the initial break, before being carried on again by Jack Robbins, quick recycled ball and Adam Morris is steaming for the corner, however he was tackled and we didn't panic, 3 more controlled phases, quick ball created and Harry Baldock (now captain in the absence of Lea Ross) switches play and Dan McKenna is on hand to score the winning try (and his second of the day)...MUCH TO THE JOY OF THE WATCHING PAST PLAYERS OF THE CLUB !

Scorers:
Dan McKenna Try x 2
Ryan Bowen Try
Nick Yates Try
Brad Russell Try
Harry Baldock 2 Conversions

CHAMPAGNE Man of the Match - LEE STOKES

Head Coach Jon Arch
"We deserved that - we played rugby for 70 minutes with 14 men, had the referee followed suit to them i honestly feel they would have been down to 12... There was so much off the ball going on from late shots, no arm hits, high tackles, the odd boot going in, and we even have a video of kick being dished out... Rossy reacted - who wouldn't, he held his hands up and i think a yellow would have been enough - it wasn't even a very good punch!"

"But looking at the positives, we scored 5 tries again; if we score 5 tries in a game I expect us to win most games We just need to improve on our defence and our scrum... The tries we scored show how we are developing each week as a team/club; great hands, offloads, aggressive running lines, and the belief in our own and our teammates ability; To score that try in the 80th minute was no less than we deserved, It shows if you play rugby the right way you should get the right result."

"There are lots to work on, but we are a young side, we had another 3 players making their League Debuts today, and we have a number of players still not available - we are still unbeaten this season, we are still getting better each and every week! Looking at the results from the first weekend, it is going to be a tight league."