The day of the North Mids Cup Semi final was a day for the purist, the heavy rain swept in on a howling wind, the pitch was a quagmire, and in the end the much heavier Redditch pack had too much strength in the set pieces and squeezed home 12-7 winners.

It was Ross-on-Wye who started the game the stronger, taking an early lead as Billy Hambling chased up a Huw Bellamy through kick. He just beat team mate Tye Hayward to the touch down, this was turned into seven points as Marcus Ballinger converted brilliantly from wide out on the left.

Ross nearly added another soon after as captain, Casey Morgan, burst through the defence 40 yards out and with the tryline beckoning, it seemed Ross would extend their lead, but the “bar of soap” masquarading as the ball just slipped from his grasp and the score went begging.

Ross continued to pressure the Redditch players but could not add to their tally and went in at half time 7-0 to the good. The rain and the wind upped their game in the second half and with the conditions in their favour Ross found it almost impossible to get out of their quagmired 22.

As it became more difficult to control the ball, the scrum became more prominent and Redditch began to turn the screw. Initially, the Ross eight held out but the pressure continued to build and eventually they crashed over to score, making the score 7-5 to Ross.

The pressure did not abate however, and after another set of five yard scrums the referee awarded a penalty try and Redditch took the lead 12-7. Ross were unable to hit back as the conditions actually got worse, hard to believe, and Redditch held on to win to take that finalist spot next May.

The Bosse interspice man of the match was Josh Morgan, who worked tirelessly in defence. There is no time to lick wounds, Ross RFC are back in league action on Saturday, December 5th at home to table toppers Ashley Down with a 2.30pm kick off.