LUCTONIANS 15, MALVERN 13.

(North Midlands Cup Semi-Final).

WITH both sides resting some players for tomorrow’s Midlands One clash, this local derby was a little disjointed at times, but still produced its moments of excitement.

After Luctonians had missed a first-minute penalty during the frantic opening exchanges, which saw both sides prone to mistakes, Malvern’s first real attack came after Chris Smith stole the ball and Tom Longley made a telling break.

The hosts were forced to concede an 11th minute penalty and Chris Hooper put the kick over.

The Herefordshire side then missed a kickable penalty a minute later, but put in a series of drives to keep Malvern on the back foot.

A 20th minute free-kick saw another forward drive, this time bringing about a converted try for the Mortimer Park outfit to take the lead. Five minutes later Luctonians collected a wayward kick and ran the ball back to score. It was then Malvern’s turn to miss a penalty, before they picked up a loose ball to set Greg Summers off, the defence just managing to get him into touch. As Malvern gradually got into the game more they put in some telling breaks.

Ted Lang kicked on and Summers went over, but was unlucky for the referee to rule he hadn’t grounded the ball.

The decision was to prove instrumental in the final analysis. The second period again saw Luctonians have the lion’s share of the ball, but Malvern’s defence was sound and much of the play took place in the centre of the park.

The game see-sawed back and forth until Malvern won a scrum, the ball was shipped out to Lang, who broke through the middle and winger Tom Beechey was on hand to storm through for a try with Hooper’s conversion bringing the gap back to only two points. When Luctonians were offside going into the last quarter hour Hooper’s boot secured a one point lead.

However, the Spring Lane side’s hopes of a final place were dashed with three minutes left when a good Luctonians steal saw them charge downfield and win the decisive penalty.

Malvern’s Director of Rugby David Robins was disappointed with the outcome. He said: “The lads felt as though they were robbed by the disallowed try in the first-half.

“Had we have turned round with a lead I felt we would have snaffled a final place.

“However, our exchanges with Luctonians are never dull, and we return there this week for a league game which both sides are keen to win.

“We want to secure a respectable league finish in our first season back and Lucs want to stay near the top.”

First-team squad v Luctonians (away-ko 3pm)-meet at Spring Lane at 12.15pm, travel by cars, number one dress code, navy blue shorts and blue socks), from: M Chivers, A Clark, J Thomas, G Taylor, C Smith, P Rawle (c), S Strong, O Jones, D Hadkiss, T Longley, T Beechey, E Lang, J Martin, G Summers, C Hooper. Reps: R Henshaw, R Hobbs, M Humphreys.

Second XV v Hereford II (away-ko 2.30pm)-meet at Spring Lane at 12.15pm: O Kitching, L Greenwood, X Han, D Smith, N Tisdale, S Smith, C Edwards, A Ruddock, M Simpson, K Harvey, J Bennett, M Cock, W Clee, N Clark, N Gyucha. Reps: T Drew, S Clark, G Fraser.

Third XV v Worcester Wanderers II (away-ko 3pm-meet at Spring Lane at 12.45pm): T Wolk, M Prosser, A Jones, D Wolfe, B Pullen, A Hill, B Meric, TBA, T Jones, G Richards, M George, T Hale, I Hill, C Williams, J Ally. Reps: M Sharp, A Seymour, B Sharrett, R Milne, R Francis. A Sunter is on the reserve list.