In-form Red and Greens lift the gloom

The victory left the Red and Greens lying in ninth at the season’s halfway mark, having won one more game than they have lost and trail the three teams above them by only five points.

The game got off to a terrible start when Buzzard’s full-back Geoff Branwhite kicked a penalty to give his side the lead within a minute.

It didn’t take Rasen long to regather their composure and give the hosts a taste of what was to come when they turned over a scrum and gave fly-half Dan Robinson the chance to level the scores.

His penalty attempt was wide of the target, but Rasen continued to exert the pressure and the next penalty wasn’t long in arriving.

Robinson made no mistake the second time to level after only eight minutes.

The visitors continued to dominate possession, and Chris Everton, languishing out of position on the wing, ignited proceedings.

He opened up the defence with a well-timed run before offloading to Adam Goodwin whose quick step inside took him clear and under the posts.

Robinson slotted the conversion.

Five minutes later Everton showed a turn of pace, to sprint in over the whitewash for a real winger’s finish.

But despite dominating, Rasen and Louth were caught napping by a quick tap-penalty and Branwhite took full advantage of the visitors’ slow reactions to sprint up field and set Ollie Taylor away for a try out wide to reduce the deficit to 15-8 at half-time.

After being under the cosh for much of the first half, the hosts began the second period strongly and scored again from another quick tap penalty.

As the Red and Green defence failed to close down the space, the Buzzard forwards rumbled on and hooker Greg Falcon powered over the line. Branwhite added the conversion to level the scores.

Rasen suffered another setback when Dave Starling was sin-binned and Branwhite kicked the resulting penalty to give the hosts an 18-15 lead.

Buzzard’s numerical advantage was short-lived when flanker Chris Rowe’s needlessly late tackle on Everton earned him a ten-minute rest on the sidelines.

This gave Rasen added impetus, and the innign score arrived with nine minutes left.

A Buzzards’ clearing kick bounced agonisingly close to the touchline, but was gathered by Goodwin with superb fingertip dexterity in the wet conditions.

The full-back calmly flicked the ball inside to Jake Pryer who charged upfield before linking with Josh White whose arcing run took him around the outside of the defence to score in the corner.

Robinson added the coup de grace with a superbly struck touchline conversion to push the margin beyond a penalty.

The Red and Greens round off the year with a trip to Wellingborough on Saturday, looking for their first win at the Cut Throat Lane ground. Kick-off 2.15pm.