Luctonians 22 – 7 Preston Grasshoppers

Hoppers headed home empty handed after a disappointing defeat to Luctonians at Mortimer Park on Saturday.

The visitors were well beaten by a Luctonians side who are fighting to stay out of a relegation battle with only a handful of games left to play in Division 2 North.

It was the home side who dominated the opening 20 minutes and took the lead through Jordan Street, who was allowed to walk over the line with ease after a loose pickup from a ruck on Hoppers’ 22. A simple conversion from scrum half Louis Silver followed.

The visitors finally got going and levelled proceedings when a dummy from fly half Lewis Allen saw him through to run under the posts, before converting his own try.

Luctonians had looked the sharper side throughout the first 40 and Silver sent over a penalty to give his side a narrow 10 – 7 lead at the break.

The second half proved even more disappointing for Hoppers, who failed to put any more points on the board.

Luctonians meanwhile continued in the same vein, and scored their second try of the match when wing Adam Knight managed to run around the Hoppers’ defence to score in the corner.

Mistakes from both sides continued throughout the second half as the points dried up somewhat, before Silver scored and converted his side’s third to make the points seem certain for the hosts.
All that Hoppers had to show was a yellow card to Pete Altham 10 minutes before the final whistle, which summed up the Hoppers’ day.

Head Coach Garth Dew said after the game: “I thought we were really disappointing. The defence hasn’t been anywhere near what it has been, there were too many missed tackles and fundamental errors.

“It’s frustrating because if we had won today it would have put us safe, but we’ve lost the game and we still have a lot of work to do.”

“I’m not concerned, I think we’ve got a couple more wins in us this year. I just think today was a long trip, we didn’t get off the bus.”

“It was a bit of a weird atmosphere today, I think there’s one eye on next season. Everyone thought, maybe we’re safe, but there’s still pressure on us.”

“We want to make sure we’re safe, and if we can win our next four games then that’s the target.”

“We’ve got a week off next week, we need to address the fundamental issues, push on and finish the season well.”

Hoppers will have a chance to get back to winning ways in two weeks’ time when Stourbridge come to Lightfoot Green.

Photograph courtesy of Colin Taylor.