Dudley Kingswinford 29th September

Saturday September 29th

Luctonians 34 Dudley Kingswinford 7

Luctonians travelled to Heathbrook facing a potentially tricky game against a Dudley Kingswinford side already ravaged by early season injuries.

The visitors kicked off and a catch and drive saw wing forward Dan Woodhouse take play to the hosts 22 metre line before being forced into touch. The home side lost their loose head prop Alex Francis early on due to injury. Luctonians looked the sharper side with scrum half Olly Williams causing problems near the base of the scrum. The first score came after 9 minutes when Dudley knocked on in midfield and with the advantage being played Lucs swept up field and No 8 Paul Hulland forced his way over. Brett Prior adding the extra points. The home side came close to scoring when an up and under kick caused the visitors problems but they eventually cleared their line. Dudley missed a straight forward 35 metre penalty on 17 minutes. Within minutes Luctonians increased their lead with a flowing threequarter movement from near their own 22 metre line ending with centre Richard Henwood crossing wide out. Prior converted. Prior then missed a simple penalty opportunity before the home side lost their hooker Adam Blackford through injury resulting in uncontested scrums for the rest of the game. The final 10 minutes of the half saw the home side exert severe pressure on the Lucs defence but they somehow failed to take advantage. Dudley missed a penalty on 35 minutes. On the stroke of half time a strong run by winger Andy Garrod was halted just short of the line leaving the half time score 14 points to nil in Luctonians favour.

Within minutes of the restart another good threequarter movement put full back Charlie Meredith over in the corner for an unconverted try. On 50 minutes Hulland was yellow carded and immediately the home side responded with a try when replacement no 8 Layton Wilkinson burst through to score a try which Tom Bissell converted. Within 3 minutes Luctonians claimed their 4th try when centre Cameron Hewitt charged down an attempted clearance and then won the race for the touchdown. Prior adding the simple conversion. Due to the uncontested scrums the game began to lose much of its sparkle though Lucs missed a couple of try scoring chances. After 65 minutes the visitors set up a ruck after a lineout near the Dudley line allowing prop Anthony Marfell to burst through to score an unconverted try. Dudley’s No 8 Andrew McEwen was then sin-binned before Prior slotted over a simple penalty for an emphatic 34 points to 7 points victory for Luctonians.

Next Saturday 6th. October Luctonians entertain unbeaten Broadstreet for a top of the league match Kick off 3pm#

Robin East