With Peter Joyce back on short term loan from The Pirates covering for the injured Craig Williams The Reds played with a freedom and enjoyment that thrilled the Hellfire Corner faithful.

The first forty minutes saw a scintillating display of rugby by The Reds who moved the ball skilfully with support players always at hand to sustain the pace.

The hosts took less than a minute to open their account when the ball was moved wide from the scrum to give Lewis Vinnicombe a simple run in for the first of his hat trick of tries. A few minutes later, playing a penalty advantage, the Reds put the ball quickly through the hands to put Vinnicombe away again. This time he needed to show his finishing skills as he demonstrated his class by accelerating brilliantly, beating the defender to touch down again.

Canterbury took advantage of a Redruth fumble, stretched the defence and recycled the ball quickly for fly-half Tom Best to touch down under the posts and add the extras to keep the visitors in touch.

The Reds were soon back on the attack and with the pack dominant, opted for a scrum from a penalty awarded in front of the posts. Once again the ball was quickly shifted to the right for Vinnicombe to complete his hat trick in Hellfire Corner.

The highlight of the afternoon came from a Reds move started deep in their own half. The ball was moved with lightning pace through half a dozen pairs of hands before Chris Fuca touched down to secure the four try bonus point with only half an hour gone. Paul Thirlby added the straightforward conversion.

The Reds’ fifth try was a brilliant solo effort by Man of the Match, live wire scrum-half Greg Goodfellow, who was a nuisance to the Canterbury defence all afternoon. An injection of pace combined with a classy dummy saw him go fifty metres to touch down, Thirlby adding the extras.

With the game over as a contest by half time the second period was a lack lustre affair. Chris Bailey made an impact in the loose for the Reds and Tom Duncan crossed for a score from short range, Thirlby converting, but the Reds lacked the cutting edge they had shown prior to the break.

These scores put Tom Duncan joint top of the league’s try scorers along with Canterbury’s Peter Kelly on seven each, and Paul Thirlby third in the leagur’s top kickers with fifty-six points.

Canterbury outscored their hosts in the second half with two well taken tries, the first scored by David Devlin-Jones following a tremendous break down the left wing. The visitors then enjoyed their best period as Alex Veale rounded things off with a late try converted by Best. Canterbury finished strongly and will probably consider themselves unlucky not to have secured a four try bonus point.

Reds’ skipper Chris Fuca felt that The Reds need to work on being more patient. “Because we scored some wonderful tries in the first half we got a bit carried away and felt that we had to keep scoring wonderful tries. Often simple rugby is best. It’s strange to feel a bit disappointed after a big win but we know what we have to work on. Still with five out of five we’ve got to be pleased with where we are and with Worthing losing today we’ll go up there next week with some confidence.”

One incident that was brought to the Club’s attention however was the conduct of a small section of spectators on the East Bank towards Canterbury’s Kwaku Asiedu. This kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and once they are identified those involved should be advised that they can expect to be banned from future games.

Attendance: 809

Referee: Nick Williams (RFU)

Yellow Cards: D. Cook (Redruth) [Technical]

Redruth

Tries: L. Vinnicombe 1, 5 & 28, C. Fuca 30, G. Goodfellow29, T. Duncan 53; Conversions: P. Thirlby 31, 39 & 53

Canterbury

Tries: T. Best 16, D. Devlin-Jones 53, Veale 76; Conversions: Best 16 & 76

Redruth: T. Notman, L. Vinnicombe (M. Westren 50), C. Bonds, S. Parsons, F. Kellythorne, P. Thirlby (N. Simmons 62), G. Goodfellow, D. Job (D. Jacques 47), R. Brown (N. Turner 72), P. Joyce, D. Cook, C. Bailey, C. Fuca (Capt.) (N. Broadbank 62), O. Hambly, T. Duncan.

Canterbury: M. Beaumont, A. Moss, D. Devlin-Jones, A. Veale, M. Melford (E. Asiedu 17), T. Best, D. Marshall (S. Tandy), J. Green, T. Rogers, M. Pinnick (S. Goode 50), T. Sherson, J. Darley, R. Comfort (R. Corr 21), S. Rogers, P. Kelly (Capt.) (N. Wakefield 62).