Towcester 31 Ludlow 28 (National Cup)

A nail-biting finish at Greens Norton Road saw Towcester snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Ludlow.

With the game deep into injury time and Tows looking down and out, wing forward Joe Threlfall took a quick penalty in his own 22 and threw a long pass to the backs.

Fullback James Falvey countered to half way and released hard-running winger James Tilley who scampered the rest of the pitch to score.

Fly half Matt Yuill missed the conversion but as soon as the ball went dead the referee blew for full-time and Tows had scraped home.

Tows now progress to the next round while Ludlow returned to Shropshire after suffering only their second defeat of the season.

Ludlow were first on the score sheet with a penalty but seven points from Yuill through a try and conversion put Tows ahead.

The hosts extended their lead with an Aaron Goodman score during a period when the visitors were reduced to 14 men thanks to a yellow card.

Goodman broke the Ludlow defences again to hand Yuill a second and Tows were now sitting pretty at 19-3.

Just before half-time however, with the Tows scrum weakened by the temporary absence of its cornerstone John Causebrook, Ludlow drove over in the corner.

The visitors narrowed the gap to 19-15 at the start of the second half when their winger intercepted an attempted long pass from Yuill and ran the length of the field to touch down.

Yuill made amends when he crossed for his hat trick, also adding the conversion to make it 26-15, but from here on in Tows looked out of sorts.

They uncharacteristically missed clear cut scoring opportunities and Ludlow made them pay for the lack of finishing.

A penalty and try from Ludlow’s fly half left the visitors just threes points adrift at 26-23 and try from their winger put them 26-28 up until Towcester finally re-found their attacking form at the death.