LUCTONIANS made it four wins from as many matches in their National League 2 West campaign, with a 21-39 victory over Devonport Services down in Plymouth, despite putting in a fairly lacklustre performance by their own high standards.

The Herefordshire men started very sluggishly on a beautiful afternoon in Devon, and were 5-0 down after six minutes as hooker Aiden Taylor ripped through the Lucs defence.  

Lucs hit back on 13 minutes, in identical fashion to Devonport’s score, with their first foray into opposition territory number eight Jack Goodwin dotted down at the back of a driving maul and with Jamin Hodgkins missing the conversion from out wide the scores were tied.

Devonport were then able to setup a position in the Lucs 22 and came away with a penalty from Richard West, for an 8-5 lead after an onslaught on the visitors line that probably deserved a better return than three points.

After Lucs tied things up on 34 minutes with a Hodgkins penalty, they then took the lead for the first time, with their driving maul again proving fruitful, as flanker Caleb Montgomery scored this time. Hodgkins knocked over the tricky conversion and Lucs held a somewhat fortuitous 8-15 lead at the break.

Devonport closed the scores to four points two minutes into the second half, with a penalty from West.

But Lucs would extend their lead almost immediately in response, as some individual brilliance from openside flanker James Mear saw him burst through two tackles, before running through the full back to score in the left hand corner. Hodgkins again with an excellent conversion gave Lucs an 11-22 lead.

And Lucs appeared to have locked the game up with the bonus-point try on 52 minutes, as Goodwin powerfully burst through for his second off the back of a lineout. With Hodgkins converting for 11-29 the game looked all but done as a contest.

However, the Devonshire side had other thoughts and 10 points from man of the match West put things back in the balance.

First, West scored a try in the left-hand corner at the back of another driving maul, which he duly converted for 18-29.

The hosts’ fly half then slotted a penalty to tighten the scores to 21-29 on 64 minutes, as Lucs winger Charlie Grimes would go to the sin-bin after a string of penalties from the visitors.

With Lucs having a narrow eight-point lead and a man down, the game was once more in the balance.

However, the Herefordshire side finally showed their class, and a quick tap penalty from replacement scrum half Owen Randell was fed to James Mear for him to burrow over, to ensure the tries were just kept in the back-row this week for the visitors.

Hodgkins would knock over the conversion and a further penalty on 75 minutes to see Lucs eventually record a comfortable 21-39 win on the scoreboard. 

The black and whites are back in action this coming weekend as they welcome Macclesfield to Mortimer Park.