Loughborough Students 27th October

Luctonians 14 - 27 Loughborough Students

PENALTIES and indiscipline cost Luctonians as they slipped to their first defeat of the season against a talented Loughborough Students side. An even opening 15 minutes could have been expected due to the nature of the game but the students, playing at home, began to exert pressure on the visitors who responded by giving away a penalty in their own half. Loughborough kicked to touch and after a series of well-constructed drives, finally crossed the whitewash for an unconverted try through hooker Jason Phipps. Another transgression, this time straight from the kick-off by Lucs, was punished through the boot of Loughborough fly-half Steven Collins on 24 minutes to increase the home lead to 8-0.

The visitors finally began to get some rhythm and continuity to their game but disaster struck when they spilled the ball in contact to allow Loughborough winger Andy Wright to speed toward the Luctonians line, brushing off two tackles before crossing to extend the Students lead to 13-0. Luctonians showed their resolve immediately from the kick off when, after opting to go for a scrum following a free-kick, Number 8 Paul Hulland picked up and ran strongly, quickly recycled ball allowed centre Cameron Hewitt the burst through the home defence and offload to Richard Henwood who scored under the posts for an easy conversion for fly-half Jeremy Wheadon.

Boosted by their late score, Luctonians used their strong set piece to their advantage after the restart and took the lead through Flanker Dan Woodside who scored in the corner following some strong mauls from the visitors. A superb conversion from Wheadon put Lucs ahead for the first time in the match and things were looking up for the Mortimer Park Club.

But the pace and the intensity of the Students' play proved too much for Lucs, and boosted by the return of winger Giles Prior from a spell in the sin bin, Loughborough forced the visitors to kill the ball which resulted in a yellow card for Hooker Nick Byron. Collins slotted the resulting penalty to regain the lead to 16-14.

In the 57th minute Loughborough Number 8 Andy Hodgkins burst over from the scrum base for an unconverted try following some concerted pressure. More indiscipline from the visitors handed Collins two more penalty chances to convert, which he duly took to seal a 27-14 win for the students.

The pace and counter-rucking ability of Loughborough caused clear problems for Lucs who will need to work hard to get back to top form before they face South Leicester at home next week.