THREE former Hereford players have joined Herefordshire rivals Luctonians Rugby Club.

Centre Adam Knight (pictured below), back-row Brad Talbot, and scrum-half Fin Ralph have signed up for the north Herefordshire outfit.

Former Cornish Pirates back-row Adam Clayton and Bridgnorth centre Elliot Brooks have also made the move to Mortimer Park.

Gloucester Academy coach Simon Lane and Andy Hazell have organised defence sessions for Luctonians during pre-season training.

“Our new working relationship with Ady Watts’ conditioning team seems to be working well,” said Luctonians’ director of rugby, Alex Davidson.

“After retaining the vast majority of players, we look to be in good shape, with more depth in the back-line than in previous seasons.”

Luctonians will open their National League Two campaign at home to Hull on September 7.

The first-team shared eight tries in a warm-up match against Newbridge last Saturday. Clayton, Anthony Marfell, Charlie Meredith and Alex Rumsey crossed for Lucs.

They have a bonding trip to Oaker Wood Leisure this weekend and then travel to Lydney for a friendly on August 31. “Ralph, Knight and Talbot are all relishing the opportunity to play national league rugby, and have set tled into the group nicely,” said Davidson.

“Brad Talbot looks like he’s a number six - he’s big and powerful and I think six would be a natural position for him.”

Davidson added: “Clayton has joined from Cornish Pirates after suffering a knee injury and underwent surgery. Clayton has since been given the OK to resume playing.

“As a previous team-mate of Adam’s I am thrilled that he has taken up my offer of joining up again and look forward to seeing him play.

“Prop Richard Jones is recovering from his shoulder problems that kept him side-lined last season.

“Richard has used his contacts in Shropshire to identify some good young talent that I would have otherwise have missed.”

Will Burton, who was attracting interest from Welsh clubs, will be playing for Luctonians and the versatile Nathan Roy-Smith will be vying for a scrum-half position.

Roy-Smith, Ollie Williams, Charlie Bennett and Ralph are all expected to be challenging for the number nine spot.

Davidson says he is hoping kicker John Morris can return to the excellent form he showed two seasons ago. “John took a long time to get over his knee injury and we need him to be firing on all cylinders this season,” said Davidson.

“We realised that, despite scoring more tries last season, our points-scored tally was fewer than the previous season and we conceded more tries.”

New first-team head coach Stuart Bemand is looking forward to the challenges, says Davidson, along with new skipper Jimmy Norris.

“Jimmy is an experienced head and when things were not right last year, he stood up and shouted his corner,” said Davidson.

But experienced prop Rob Yeomans is expected to play for Tenbury.