Bees face Redruth on Trophy trail

Woodrow believes the Bees can go on a good Trophy run

Birmingham & Solihull go head-to-head with promotion rivals Redruth on Saturday in the third round of the EDF Energy National Trophy.

It is a tough draw for the Bees who remain just one victory behind the Cornish club in National League Two.

"I'm not a great believer in easing off in cup matches," said Bees' former Bristol fly-half Mark Woodrow.

"We should be looking to go for league and cup. There's a risk of injury, but we shouldn't pamper people."

Redruth won this season's earlier meeting in the league, back on the opening day of the National Two campaign, and the two teams clash again at the end of April in what could be a title decider.

We want to get back into National League One next season

Bees fly-half Mark Woodrow

The Bees had made up ground in the league table, only to slip to a first home defeat against Tynedale last weekend.

"Losing to Tynedale last Saturday hurts us more than losing at Redruth on the opening day," said Woodrow.

"We had worked so hard to catch up with Redruth but against Tynedale our set-piece wasn't the best, we missed a lot of our chances and our defence wasn't as good as it has been recently."

Birmingham & Solihull developed a reputation as giant-killers back in 2004 when they upset Wasps 28-24 in the quarter-final of the Cup, Woodrow's boot contributing 18 points to that upset.

"The Wasps game is a fond memory but there are plenty of challenges to come," he noted.

"We want to get back into National League One next season and there is no reason why we can't turn Redruth over this week, beat a couple of National One clubs and get to the final."

The Bees welcome back coach Russell Earnshaw for this week's tie after he spent the past two weeks as assistant coach to the English national sevens team.