LUCS 24 – 12 HINCKLEY
LUCS PUT IN A STRONG PERFORMANCE
Luctonians RFC vs Hinckley RFC
Saturday 26th April 2025 – Mortimer Park
Match Report by Geoff Vickress
With this being Ryan Watkins’ last game as Head Coach for Luctonians, the home side were determined to put in a strong performance. And they succeeded, beating a heavyweight Hinckley side comfortably at 24-12, in front of a very appreciative home crowd. The game at times lacked the fluidity that it probably deserved, but the home side were superb in defence and restricted their visitors to few opportunities.
The first 20 minutes were very Mickey Mouse, and it wasn’t until the 23rd minute that there were any points on the score board, with Lucs No 9 Owen Randell setting up, with the assistance of wing George Bennett, centre Rob Bengry, who had a fine game, to touch down. Randell converted for 7-0 lead. Lucs defence was superb throughout and they held Hinckley back on the counterattack excellently, when they were camped in the red zone.
Seb Robinson, on his final first team performance and after 131 National League games, was next over the whitewash for the home side on the half hour, when he came up at bottom of a driving maul to increase the home sides lead; Randell again converting for a 14-0 lead. And when the ever-alert Randell spotted a gap in the Hinckley defence shortly after, he sped through to dot down, converting his own try to lead 21-0.
Hinckley fought back and were fortuitous when Jamie Dutton was found wide in clear open space following a scrum close to Lucs dead ball line, and ran in to touch down to reduce arrears to 21-5 at oranges.
Half Time Score
Luctonians RFC 21 – 5 Hinckley RFC
Half time came and went, with the home side starting the second half with a relatively comfortable 21-5 advantage.
The half was territorially dominated by Lucs but, despite regular stoppages for infringements and a couple of fracas, which kept the officials busy, with both Randell for the home side and Vowles for the visitors seeing yellow on the hour, there was little scoring action though Randell, before taking his leave of absence for his involvement in one case of handbags, knocked over a superb penalty for Luctonians to increase their advantage to 24-5.
Hinckley, despite all their endeavours, rarely ventured out of their own half, due to some superbly controlled defence by the home side. They did score with one of their few forays into their opponent’s territory when wing Rafe Witheat found space and ran in-to dot down, converting his own efforts for 24-12 just on the hour.
But the home side controlled the final quarter and should have added to their tally of points, but neither side troubled the scoreboard before the end of proceedings.
Full Time Score
Luctonians RFC 24 – Hinckley RFC
Lucs will be pleased to have finished the season in fifth, albeit with some disappointment that they couldn’t push on from last year’s achievement, finishing second.
But this was a highly competitive league overall this season, with some clubs having plenty of financial assistance to assist their gains towards promotion, with the home-side in the main using players who have come through their excellent youth development section.
Hinckley however, will likely lick their wounds and comeback as they do season after season as strong opposition for most without perhaps troubling the promotion hopefuls.
Luctonians Man of the Match
Harry Whiteman
On our Facebook page, you can check out the Live scoreline with goal-line video footage of the Lucs tries and shortly a grandstand view of the try highlights. You will also soon be able to enjoy a selection of action pics from Nigel Mee.
Picture Credit – Nigel Mee, Luctonians