Luctonians 1st’s v Otley

National 2 North Division

At Mortimer Park

Boris Enjoys Day Out At the Rugby

Tennis legend, Boris Becker, who was the special guest speaker at the Luctonians Rugby Club lunch last weekend, had nothing but praise for the club following a thoroughly entertaining afternoon at Mortimer Park.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better day. We’ve had a wonderful lunch, a bit of laughter and I’ve enjoyed a great game of rugby, despite the home team losing. They are very friendly, very hospitable here; the beers excellent and I couldn’t have expected such an excellent warm welcome.”

Becker, attending just his second ever game of rugby, was the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17 and with such a young Luctonians side he was keen to offer some words of wisdom for the players as they look forward to a successful career.

“Well you have to be passionate, you have to love what you do and then that will enable you to go the extra yard. Obviously rugby is very different to tennis but the mentality is always the same, you have to be very professional yet emotional about it because that is when you bring out the best in yourself and from what I’ve seen today I’m sure that the players are doing that already”.

With all the attention on Boris before the game, it was key that Director of Rugby, Alex Davidson, kept the boys focused on the game, as he explained.

“We are very focused on the rugby here at the moment; obviously it’s great for the club and the commercial avenue to have stars like Boris to come here but as the playing staff at the club we are here to concentrate on our on the pitch activities rather than off the pitch activities.”

On the field Luc’s had a great start to the season winning all of their opening five games but since then they have lost seven of their last eight games something that captain Jimmy Norris is keen to address.

“I think one of the things so far this season is that our form has remained pretty consistent, we certainly haven’t got anywhere near our potential yet, we haven’t had a day at the office where everything has clicked. The main thing now is to keep working hard and making sure we do everything we can to reach our full potential and play at that level for as long as possible”.

It was certainly an improved performance against Otley on the weekend but despite a spirited second half fight back, Luctonians slipped to a six point defeat against a strong visiting side.

After trailing 20 points to 3 at half time, the home side came out with all guns blazing and scored two tries through Paul Hulland and Adam Clayton and were held up over the try-line with just minutes remaining, denying them a well deserved victory.

Luctonians were slow off the mark, in the first half, as the away team played some very attractive flowing rugby and it was all Luc’s could do to limit the travelling back line to just two tries, coming from Harry Hudson and Mark Ireland.

Whatever director of rugby Alex Davidson said at half time to his players had the desired effect as the Luctonians players dominated the entire second half.

Intense pressure told, midway through the half, as the Luctonians pack drove over both Paul Hulland and Adam Clayton, with Will Burton adding the extras on both occasions.

From then on it seemed just a matter of time before Luctonians scored again to take the lead but as the minutes dragged on, no matter how close they got to the whitewash the Otley defence just managed to hold on for the win.