South Leicester 6 pts Luctonians 5 LUCTONIANS slipped to their fourth defeat of the season against their bogey' team in an intensely tight affair in Midlands 1.

An injury-hit Luctonians side were forced to play players out of position and several reserve team players were drafted in.

Debutant front rowers Mike Jones and Jamie Fletcher acquitted themselves well as did flanker Ben James and hooker Stuart Bemand performed well making the switch to prop.

Despite this unfamiliar front row, Luctonians dominated the opening stages and deservedly took the lead after five minutes when intense forward pressure created space for the backs and winger Andy Garrod crashed over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Following the score, the Herefordshire side continued to pressurise their opponents and could have furthered their lead on two occasions but both of fly-half Brett Prior's penalty attempts were off target.

South Leicester began to claw their way back in to the game and fly-half Matt Lord slotted over a penalty to cut the lead to two points. Lord then had the chance to put the home side into the lead before half time but missed with his penalty attempt, leaving the Herefordshire side 5-3 in front at the break.

In the second half Luctonians continued to have the better of the play, but it was South Leicester who took the lead with a Lord penalty in the 65th minute after a brief foray into the Kingsland team's half.

Following this, the Herefordshire side upped their game with solid ground work.

They thought they had got their reward when hooker Nick Bryon forced his way over, but the unsighted referee over-ruled the score. South Leicester held on to record a narrow 6-5 victory and send the visitors down to 5th in Midlands 1.

Next, Luctonians travel to Birkenhead Park in the 4th round of the EDF Intermediate Cup before facing perhaps their toughest test of the season when taking on Loughborough Students.