LUCTONIANS have been dealt a major blow with the news that director of rugby Alex Davidson has been forced to hang up his boots.

The former Birmingham & Solihull lock forward was given the news at a meeting with his specialist last week.

"It's curtains for me as a player," said the 33-year-old who has been kept out of the side since October by a shoulder injury.

"It is the same muscle that I tore in 2004 but now it's missing from the scan so it seems to have been reabsorbed into other muscle mass.

"So, overall, there is no chance of putting it back in place, even if they could find it."

Davidson played in Luctonians' first five games of the season, which brought five victories, before sustaining the injury.

Since then, the Mortimer Park club have enjoyed some highs and lows but turned in a creditable performance last Saturday to go down by just five points in a 20-15 home reverse against National Two North high-flyers Stourbridge.

"We raised our performance again," said Davidson. "We have been getting steadily better over the last few weeks and this was a cup final for us.

"We changed the way we played to try to disrupt them and it worked.

"But they showed their class just before and after half-time to get the win."

Luctonians opened the scoring with a penalty from Will Burton after applying good pressure in the early stages.

"After that, it became a stalemate in midfield but then they scored in the 35th minute through Nigel Mukarati," said Davidson.

"He scored again in the 43rd minute and then Tom Jarvis scored a third try."

Brad Talbot's try cut the gap before Nathan Bressington re-established a 12-point advantage for the visitors.

In the closing stages, Luctonians earned a penalty try, converted by Burton, which gave the Herefordshire side a bonus point and leaving them looking with some optimism towards their long trip to Otley on Saturday.

"We've not got any new injuries and the Otley match is one of those that we have to be looking to win," said Davidson.