Edwardians 0 pts Luctonians 24

LUCTONIANS safely negotiated the third round of the RFU Intermediate Cup with a solid win over lower-graded Solihull-based opponents on Saturday.

Luctonians took the opportunity to give several young players their initial taste of first-team rugby and wingers James Connolly and Peter Reed acquitted themselves well.

In the second half two further young players were introduced when Chris Jaques replaced Ben McGowan at prop and Charlie Langford came on for Anton Pilli at fly-half.

As is often the case in cup ties, Edwardians raised their game and, although the final outcome was never in doubt, they matched Luctonians for endeavour and commitment for long periods.

Edwardians kicked off and immediately mounted a series of attacks but the nearest they came to scoring was a drop at goal that fell short.

It was the 12th minute before Luctonians worked their way into Edward-ians territory but their ability to link together phases of play was hampered somewhat by a referee who halted play with an inordinate number of penalties.

Edwardians, too, were guilty of killing the ball on the ground and after several warnings their open-side flanker was sin-binned in the 36th minute.

Edwardians' defence almost succeeded in denying Luctonians a first-half score but in the 41st minute fly-half Pilli received the ball from a scrum on the line to crash over half-way out, taking several tacklers with him.

Minutes later flanker Andrew Morris scored a second try in injury time after the visitors declined a penalty kick in front of the posts and ran the ball instead. With both conversions missed, Lucton-ians led 10-0 at half-time.

Some of the bite went out of the match 15 minutes into the second half when Edwardians ran out of front-row replacements and from then on the scrums were uncontested.

Luctonians increased their lead in the 23rd minute when, with the ball moving left, centre and captain Will Crawforth stepped inside and shook off several tackles before crossing under the posts. Mark Panniers converted.

The final try came from a well-executed move.

Scrum-half Will Price dummied the ball wide but flicked it inside for hooker Mark Chandler to crash through the middle to find lock Charlie Turner on his shoulder for the final pass and a try under the posts.

A second Panniers conversion completed the scoring.