Newport 12th April

Luctonians 36 - 10 Newport

LUCTONIANS took a giant leap towards promotion and national league rugby on Saturday when they brushed aside relegation-threatened Newport 36-10 at Mortimer Park.

Lucs leap-frogged rivals Broadstreet into second spot in Midlands 1 after the Coventry-based side crashed to a 17-15 defeat at home to South Leicester.

The Mortimer Park men started brightly and with the powerful home forward pack once again firing on all cylinders it was not long before a well-constructed rolling maul saw second row Chris Jaques crash over for Lucs' first unconverted score.

More power-play from the home forwards got them their next score, Number 8 Paul Hulland forcing his way over for scrum-half Chris James to convert.

The home side's storming start proved difficult to sustain against a courageous visiting team, who registered their first points through fullback Lequeti, after a Lucs indiscretion.

Newport's tails were now very much up, and it was only staunch defence from the home side that prevented them from building on their lead.

Lucs surged upfield and after a series of phases the ball was recycled and moved wide for winger Andrew Garrod to scoot over in the corner and although the home side could not convert they held a healthy 17-3 lead at the break.

The visitors started the second period with a bang at got themselves right back into the game thanks to a try from scrum-half Jamie Simpson, who sniped over from close range to allow Lequeti to convert.

Newport were within a converted score of the home side but Lucs' responsive was swift and clinical; a perfectly executed backline move saw winger Mark Panniers slice through the defence for his first score of the match.

James slotted the conversion to increase Lucs' lead to 24-10.

By now Newport were finding it hard to deal with the pace and intensity of Lucs' play- which is possible thanks to a marked improvement in the conditioning of the players compared to recent years, and after a possession was recycled for a number of phases, outside-half Alex James floated a beautiful pass to Garrod, who hit it at speed to dash over for his second unconverted score.

The home side were dominating the closing stages and got their sixth score when centre Alex Smith went over after "dummying" to hooker Nick Byron who was supporting on the inside.

James converted for a resounding 36-10 final scoreline.

This week Lucs travel to Kenilworth in their final league match of the season.

The Kingsland club are now in the box seat for a play-off and will be keen to make sure that is still the case next Saturday evening.