ANOTHER five points were bagged by Redruth on Saturday as they saw off Dings Crusaders 36-25 in National League Two South action, writes Roger Watson.

But despite securing the victory, the Reds were forced to dig deep by their opponents who looked much better than their bottom of the table league position suggests.

The lead changed hands a total of six times in this nine try thriller at The Rec.

The hosts started slowly and found themselves trailing to a Mark Woodrow penalty after two minutes but the home pack struck back by driving over from a line-out for flanker Ben Priddey to touch down with Ashley Hosking adding the extras off the right hand upright.

Dings soon regained the lead though as a well worked backs move put winger Simon Hunt over for a try, but Woodrow’s conversion attempt bounced off the upright to deny him the additional two points.

The Reds responded with another forward drive from the line-out allowing man-of-the-match Priddey to complete his brace.

The visitors went ahead once again when another enthralling backs move resulted in a try for James Oakley, converted by Woodrow.

Then the Reds started to show their dominance with a good sequence of passing gave number eight Kyle Marriot the chance to break through for the touchdown and a straightforward conversion for Hosking.

With Dings down to fourteen men following Ben Bolster’s red card for lifting Priddey’s feet above the horizontal and failing to bring him to ground safely, another team try was completed by winger Dean Bonds, securing the four try bonus point and establishing a nine point lead at the break.

Many in the 700 plus crowd expected the Reds to kick on and wrap things up in the second half, but Dings had other ideas.

Appearing galvanised by the loss of their full back, they dominated the third quarter as they made the Reds look disjointed.

Hunt’s second try and a conversion and penalty from Woodrow restored a one point lead for the visitors.

There would be delight Reds fans though in the end as the hosts score two scintillating tries in the final ten minutes.

A good team effort put Matt Bowden over in the corner with Greg Goodfellow touching down from a fifty metre solo sprint.

Bertie Hopkin, on loan from The Cornish Pirates and making his debut in the red shirt, converted Goodfellow’s try to seal a hard fought victory and round off another enthralling afternoon.

REDRUTH: 15 Hosking (Rule, 48), 14 Bonds (Hopkin, 41), 13 Webber, 12 Parsons, 11 Bowden, 10 McAtee, 9 Goodfellow; 1 Phillips, 2 Brown (Hambly, 66), 3 Williams (Drew, 62), 4 Collins, 5 Bailey, 6 Fuca (c), 7 Priddey, 8 Marriott.

UNUSED REP: Simmons.

TRIES: Priddey (9, 25), Marriott (36), Bonds (39), Bowden (76), Goodfellow (79) CONS: Hosking 2/4, Hopkin 1/2.