A BONUS point was ripped away from Redruth despite staging a heroic comeback from 20-0 down at Clifton, writes Ed Bawden.

Charlie Foley struck a late penalty for the Bristolians which saw the final finish at 30-22, denying the Reds of any consolation from the National League Two South clash.

It left their head coach Steve Larkins frustrated after seeing Redruth pull back a disastrous start where they conceded 14 points in the opening four minutes.

Larkins said: “I feel really flat, this was a game that I did not think we were going to lose once we got back into it in the second half we were dominant in many areas and got back to take the lead, but a couple of errors from us let it slip.

“It was a very sloppy start and you cannot afford to give away 14 points in the opening five minutes and expect to come back and win a game.

“I feel we have had a rough time with decisions at the scrum recently, but these are little tiny things that are nothing to do with endeavour or the way we are playing you just need the rub of the green at times and it is hard to swallow.”

Clifton took first use of a strong wind blowing down the slope and when Ashley Hosking’s kick-off failed to go ten metres, they took full advantage with good handling seeing the strong running full-back Will Pomphrey run in a try after 12 seconds which Foley converted.

A slip from Murray Westren, playing again after a spell on the sidelines through injury, handed the hosts another try three minutes later as his failed clearance near the posts was snapped up by scrum-half Andrew Uren to touch down, with the conversion being added.

Foley, a good operator at ten, added the conversion for this try before landing home two penalties to see Clifton 20 points clear a few minutes before the half hour.

The Redruth forwards were going well as their hosts struggled to defend driving mauls and got on the scoreboard when Tommy Phillips went over after 29 minutes for an unconverted try.

On the stroke of half time, the consistent Reds hooker Richard Brown was awarded the touch down from another powerful maul with Hosking adding the extras to leave the visitors well in contention at the break.

Redruth dominated play and territory early in the second half and Clifton forward Ali Bone was yellow carded following repeated offences by the home team at mauls.

Soon after Referee Dan Parrott awarded the Reds a penalty try converted by Hosking as the Clifton forwards strayed offside.

When Hosking put over a penalty just to the right of the posts after 48 minutes, Redruth went ahead for the first time and the game looked to be theirs for the taking.

Credit must go to Clifton though who ran well into the wind and played good rugby.

They went close to a score after neat work by Lucas Slowick and Pomphrey, but it was not long before Foley was awarded a try after the referee consulted with one of his assistants after 64 minutes after another move by the hosts edged over the line.

The fly-half also converted for a match winning haul of 20 points.

Chasing the game in the closing stages, Redruth lost Luke Collins to a yellow card for preventing a quickly taken penalty and Foley put over a penalty from near the posts with three minutes to go to deny the Reds a bonus point.

The defeat sees Redruth drop to tenth in the league table, a place below rivals the Cornish All Blacks, and on Saturday Larkins’ side host Old Elthamians at the Rec.

REDRUTH: 15 Hosking, 14 Kessell, 13 Parsons (c), 12 Webber, 11 Wedlake, 10 Westren, 9 Goodfellow; 1 Phillips (Tompsett 67), 2 Brown, 3 Drew (Phillips 74), 4 Cook, 5 Collins, 6 Hambly (Stevens 72), 7 Stevens (Priddey 51), 8 Marriott.

UNUSED REPS: Rutter, Prisk.

TRIES: Phillips, Brown, Penalty.

CONS: Hosking 2/3.

PEN: Hosking.

SIN-BIN: Collins.