WORCESTER Wanderers’ fans were left scratching their heads as their side failed to claim at least a losing bonus point against 14-man Redingensians Rams who secured a 26-13 victory.
Ian Jeffreys saw red with less than 15 minutes remaining at Weston Fields, but Worcester could not close the gap before tight-head prop James Baker wrapped up the win with a last-minute try.
After suffering a 33-0 defeat to Brixham last week, Stuart James’ men were keen to bounce straight back and they opened the scoring a with a Tom Biggs penalty.
But they knew they needed to produce their very best to defeat the Rams, who had lost just two games all season. And the visitors soon took control of the contest when James Brooks slipped through to score.
The scrum half converted his own try before knocking over a penalty on the half hour mark to take a 10-3 lead.
Wanderers managed to hit back with a penalty from Biggs after Jeffreys was sent to the bin.
But the match took a turn for the worse as a Brooks penalty just before the break was followed by Mike Dodge receiving a yellow card at the start of the second period.
And Redingensians took full advantage as Brooks added eight further points to his haul thanks to a try and a penalty to move his side 21-6 in front.
Worcester refused to give in, though, and scored their first try of the match when Jake Saddington was driven over, which Biggs converted.
With the momentum with Wanderers, they were then presented with a real chance to snatch victory when Jeffreys was shown a yellow card.
But when Oliver Meadows soon followed the flanker into the sin-bin, Worcester’s hopes were dashed and Redingensians sealed victory with a try from Baker in the dying moments.