LUCTONIANS suffered from ill-discipline and handling errors as they fell to a 14-23 defeat to Redruth.
On yet another bleak and cold Saturday afternoon at Mortimer Park, the home side missed four gilt edge opportunities when in the Redruth redzone, and had one try scratched off when the officials could not decide if the home side had dotted down or not.
Prolific home try scorer for Luctonians Ben Link opened the scoring when he dotted down at the back of another well worked driving maul on 12 minutes, Owen Randell converting for a 7-0 lead.
Redruth were back in the game soon afterwards when Luke Barnes went over the whitewash following concerted pressure in response, Dan Rutter converting to level the scores.
And it was Rutter again, who after missing an earlier penalty chance knocked over for the lead, after Caleb Montgomery had been yellow carded for side entry into a maul in front of the posts (7-10).
There was no additional score before the half time whistle, although Redruth had been the more likely to score.
Luctonians started the second half with more vigour, but although they created opportunities in the Redruth danger zone they could not capitalise, this despite Tyler Gendall being carded for a technical infringement.
Rutter added to the away sides score with another penalty (7-13) and they at times looked like breaking away with No9 Rigelsford always dangerous when on the front foot.
However, it was Lucs who did everything but score when in their opponents 22.
They eventually crossed the whitewash when captain Ben Link sliced through from close range to put the home side back into the lead on 52 minutes, Randell converting for the lead at 14-13.
Redruth however defended their try line superbly when under pressure, and Lucs would rue their missed chances.
When the away side did get into Lucs’ territory they capitalised on every visit, with Rutter adding to his penalty tally to put them back in the lead (14-16).
The visitors were cheering again when replacement Tommy Phillips somehow wriggled over to give them the breathing space they wanted with just minutes on the clock, Rutter converting (14-23).
Rob Wiggington for Redruth was shown a yellow for foul play after the try was scored, but this made no difference as there was not any time on the clock to allow Luc’s the opportunity to reduce the arrears.
Lucs will again be disappointed with the result despite having much of the play, but Redruth would travel home to Cornwall please with having done the double over their hosts this season.
Luctonians travel to Taunton Titans next weekend with Redruth hosting Cinderford, both sides playing clubs above them in this highly competitive league.
With eight games remaining of the season Luctonians are in sixth position, but with two sides bearing down on them.
Luctonians: Watkins; Bennett; Wheeler; Goodall; Grimes; Jones; Randell : Deignan; Link; White; Montgomery; Whiteman; Geraghty; Mear; Goodwin
Replacements: Middleton; Roberts; Rutherford; Park; Aikman
