Josh Thomas (The Rugby Paper Photographer)
Date – 14th September 2024
League – National 2 West
Cinderford RFC VS Luctonians RFC
Final Score – Cinderford RFC 13 VS 15 Luctonians RFC
Man of the Match – James Mear
League Table – https://www.ncarugby.com/national-2-west-table/
Luctonians made it back-to-back wins on the road to open their season, as they came out on top 13-15 in a tough battle at Cinderford, in Round 2 of their National League 2 West campaign.
Fresh off the back of a solid win at Hinckley last time out, the Herefordshire men knew their efforts would need to improve this week when pitting themselves against a side who came down from the level above last season, and they started in that fashion, with wave after wave of attack putting pressure on the Cinderford defence.
The pressure eventually told and on seven minutes, man of the match Jame Mear was driven over the line at the back of an effective maul to give Lucs the early lead. Jamin Hodgkins could not add the conversion into the breeze but 0-5 was a decent start for the men from Mortimer Park.
The hosts would establish themselves into the game, predominantly via their strong set piece and on thirteen minutes shaved the lead to two points as a breakdown infringement was punished by fly half Luke Mcmahon knocking over a penalty for 3-5.
In what was turning into a very physical encounter Lucs would build more pressure and reasserted the five point margin on 22 minutes, as Hodgkins made no mistake with a penalty, with Cinderford being pinged for offside in their own 22 metre area.
The teams would go in level at the break, as the men from The Forest took advantage of an increasing penalty count against Lucs, which culminated in a yellow card to Conor Geraghty for repeated team infringements on 25 minutes.
The 14 men held firm for the majority of the period, but right as Geraghty was being prepared to come back on, Cinderford created a smart overlap and Mcmahon went over in the left hand corner to tie things up, as he could not convert from the touchline.
The second period continued in hugely physical fashion, with both teams slugging it out at set-piece and in the collisions. Defences largely remained on top, but there would be two more tries in a bruising half of rugby.
The first of these came for the visitors on 56 minutes, as Caleb Montgomery went over for Lucs, following a large number of phases where the visitors tried to bang the doors down.
Eventually the Lucs flanker would go in under the posts after the hosts’ defence could no longer cope with the physical battering. Hodgkins added the extras importantly for 8-15.
The other score of the half came up the other end of the pitch, as Cinderford got their powerful driving maul going and hooker Nathan Taylor dotted down amongst the pile of bodies on 67 minutes after a 5-metre lineout.
Into the wind, fly half Mcmahon could not land the conversion, and it meant the visitors held a slender two point advantage heading into the final ten minutes, most of which was played out in Cinderford territory for Lucs to claim a first ever league victory over their illustrious hosts.
Luctonians will be delighted with their start to this season with two of their toughest away-day assignments ticked off and two victories to boot, but know that the challenges do not get any easier this week as they host a Clifton side that finished just behind them, third in the standings last season.
