NEVER having come this far before in the Powergen Intermediate Cup, Ledbury were looking to progress to the fifth round which would have meant a place in the last 32 of this national competition.

NUNEATON OLD EDWARDIANS 33pts, LEDBURY 1st XV 15pts

Due to player unavailability, Ledbury fielded a much changed side but still managed to hit the ground running in the opening five minutes. Barrett Price opened the scoring with a penalty but this early lead was soon cancelled out by two well worked tries from the Nuneaton.

Ledbury kept in the game when Price scored his second try of the season by taking the ball on himself from the base of a ruck and beating three defenders down the blind side. The unconverted try left the score 12-8.

Ledbury looked threatening when they kept the ball in hand and took the game to the hosts with Tara Barnett, Simon Wragg and Martin Williams getting the bit between their teeth with some strong, direct running over the gain line. Bad luck struck for winger Will Delamore on 25 minutes as he was forced to leave the field with a lip injury as a result of a clash of heads. Nevertheless, Ledbury were still managing to show good aggression in open play which seemed to upset their opponents.

A further converted try for Nuneaton left the half time score at 19-8 in their favour.

Ledbury started the second half by stepping up another gear and began to show some control on the game. This managed to frustrate Nuneaton which resulted in their No 8 being sin binned for punching. Ledbury used these 10 minutes to their advantage when Nick Bevan burst through the midfield following a good recycled ball from the rest of the forwards. Price converted from under the posts to make the score 19-15.

Following an injury to Dave Pickering which saw him leave the field mid-way through the second half, Nuneaton found some form and capitalised on every opportunity given to them. Two converted tries in succession saw them open a lead that was never to be closed despite a further visit by one of their players to the sin bin for more violent conduct.

Skipper Mick Christopherson said after the game: "We can draw on some positives from the game which saw us improve our physical dominance but we must work at securing 100 per cent of our set pieces to enable our backs and back row to play on the front foot. These improvements must be tackled in training."

This week's man of the match, who was sponsored by 'The Pay Zone' (www.the-pay-zone.com), was Rus Putland. Putland's stint at flanker for the first 20 minutes of the game surely opens up further options for captain Christopherson in future games.

- Ledbury now refocus for tomorrow's (Saturday) league fixture against Old Leamingtonians. Kick off is 2.30pm, which is preceded by a Vice President's lunch to be attended by the former England player and now president of the RFU, Derek Morgan.

Anybody wishing to join this growing group of supporters should contact Elliott Thomas via the club.