Defence dominates Redruth as Old Albanian turn on the style to delight their support
Tom Holdsworth scored the bonus-point try for Old Albanian. Picture: Karyn Haddon - Credit: Archant
Old Albanian produced their best performance of the season to repulse the Redruth attack and claim a 27-10 win in National Two South at Woollams.
Not only was the result an impressive five-pointer but highlighted in all the mayhem were sufficient matters to be attended to at training to improve performance by some way.
The detail which will concern everyone the least, so long as standards are maintained, is defence.
Albeit with the wind and sun at their backs, for the first 10 minutes of this bruising encounter OAs faced a rampant visiting assault and were camped on their own line for much of this period.
Too often Albanians have been described as imprecise; in these early phases concentration was utter, decision-making unerring and execution unyielding as each Redruth wave crashed into a line which got stronger by the minute.
The damage this did to the Redruth morale was evident and after surviving the relentless Cornish attack, Dan Watt opened his account with a straight-forward penalty.
Charlie Hughes work rate was inspirational and his tackle count would have seen him ostracised by any right thinking prop of the 1970s but Toby Munday matched him hit for hit.
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Scrum and line-out both worked well against a big set of forwards and this had its own morale boosting effect throughout the contest.
A five-minute burst probably sealed the encounter as Morgan Thompson tore in from close range for the first try.
Watt converted that and improved Peter Warne’s timely effort just after the half hour.
Tom Notman got Redruth on the board just after the interval with Richard Kevern converting but Watt was on hand once more to improve Tom Bednall’s neat score moments later.
Kevern narrowed the gap with a penalty three minutes on but visiting discipline had already begun to show cracks.
Tom Holdsworth accelerated through one of the widening gaps in front of him for the bonus point with most of the fourth quarter still to play.
Watt, who had helped himself to three successful kicks could not quite manage the difficulty provided by the breeze.
But all will rejoice in a comprehensive victory and will relish the week’s break before the trip to Clifton on Saturday week.
