LUCTONIANS went top of National League 2 West following a strong second half showing to eventually dismantle a spirited Loughborough Students side 62-17.

The Students eventually had just two converted interception tries and a solitary penalty in response to the home side’s onslaught 10-try onslaught.

Winger Charlie Grimes got the first of his hat-trick with just three minutes gone, after a beautiful chip from Louis Silver put him into space.

Henry Hawkins responded with the first of those intercepts for the visitors, converted by Thomas Quinlan, before Caleb Montgomery answered back for the hosts with a push-over score from a strong scrum on 25 minutes.

A Quinlan penalty brought the score to 12-10, but that would be as close as things got for the remainder.

Ben Link’s scored first effort of a hat-trick from a driving maul and took the score to 19-10 at the break.

Lucs deserved to go in at the break with a lead as the visitors had barely entered their 22 in spite of having the wind at their backs.

The dominance of the Herefordshire outfit would really come through in the second half as one-way traffic commenced.

Conor Geraghty went over for another maul score on 45 minutes, to take the lead out to two scores, before the brilliant Archie Benson who ran riot throughout, set up Josh Nott for a run-in on 55 metres and a 31-10 score-line.

Sami Hamid got the visitors sole second half effort on the hour mark with the next intercept.

However, Luctonians then flexed their muscles in the final 15 minutes, scoring five more tries and doubling their score in the process. 

Link rumbled over via two more driving mauls on 65 and 68 minutes to take him to the top of the league’s try-scoring standings.

James Wheeler then scored a cracking long-range effort, with Rob Aikman assisting after a devastating break down the left-hand side.

Grimes added his second and third in the final minutes to pull level with his team-mate Link as both finished with a hat-trick each.

The penultimate try for Grimes was the pick of the scores when after huge team pressure and multiple phases eventually led to a run-in down the right wing.

His third was another cracking individual effort from a winger who is bang in form right now.

With Silver converting six of the tries for 62-17, the Mortimer Park faithful were sent home very happy indeed.

The hosts were playing in a one-off green jersey last weekend to raise money and awareness for We Are Farming Minds.

Lucs travel to Exeter University this coming week in a top of the table clash, as the second placed hosts the table topping Luctonians.

The Kingsland-based outfit will be looking to string together their sixth win on the bounce and continue the brilliant start that they have made to the campaign.