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 the second game of their National League 2 West campaign.

Fresh off the back of a solid win at Hinckley last weekend, the Herefordshire men started on the front foot 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 5-0 lead.

The hosts would establish themselves into the game and on 13 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.

Lucs build more pressure and reasserted the five-point margin on 22 minutes, as Jamin 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.

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.

In the second half 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 for a first ever league victory over their illustrious hosts.

Things do not get any easier this week as Luctonians host a Clifton side that finished just behind them, third in the standings last season.