Luctonians Colts 0 pts Bishop's Stortford 37 pts

LUCTONIANS Colts' dreams of reaching the National Under-18 Cup final died at a rain-swept Mortimer Park today (Saturday).

Simon Green-Price's side gave their all but were defeated by a strong and well-drilled Bishop's Stortford outfit in the semi-finals.

Full-back Will Mallins scored a hat-trick for Stortford, while James Obart bagged a brace of tries and James Apperley also crossed for the visitors.

The visitors, whose side contained three players capped at under-18 national level, opened up a 20-0 lead before the interval.

Tom Jones missed a difficult second-minute penalty for the hosts, who enjoyed their best period of pressure towards the end of the first half.

Luctonians battled hard in the second period and never gave up but the Hertfordshire side deservedly go through to the final.

Captain Harry Small, scrum-half Fran Jennings and number eight Matt Stokes all worked hard for Luctonians.

Stortford will meet either Worcester Wanderers or Westcliff, who play their cup semi-final at Sixways tomorrow (Sunday).

For photographs and reaction from today's cup battle at Mortimer Park, see Ian Morgan's Big Match feature in Thursday's Hereford Times.

For video action and interviews from the game, log on to herefordtimes.com/video from Wednesday afternoon onwards.