Break comes at a good time for Ludlow

Injuries have decimated head coach Tom Tench’s squad

Ludlow head coach Tom Tench is aiming to make the most of a welcome break from league action.

Ludlow's Henry Evans breaks through the DK defence en route to scoring his team’s first try Picture: Trevor Patchett | Trevor Patchett

placeholder image — Ludlow's Henry Evans breaks through the DK defence en route to scoring his team’s first try Picture: Trevor Patchett | Trevor Patchett

Tench's men don't return to Regional Two West combat until Saturday week, when they travel to face Hereford.

And Tench is hoping to get some quality work done on the training ground and hopefully see his selection hand boosted by the time they take to the field at Wyeside.

Ludlow have been decimated by a crippling injury list in recent weeks and were missing 13 senior players for last Saturday's 59-17 defeat at Dudley Kingswinford.

"We've got a weekend off, so we've got two weeks now to prep for the Hereford game," said Tench.

"We have got to try to get some boys back into the squad that are injured, and then we just have to go back to some of our real fundamentals on our defence, and just keep drilling that for next two weeks.

"We will use these two weeks as a little mini pre-season and just get back to who we know we are."

Last Saturday's defeat was Ludlow's third in a row, but Tench was proud of his patched-up squad's efforts.

"The scoreline didn't reflect it, but it was a better performance than the week before against Shipston, we were much more competitive," said Tench.

"There was large portions of the game where we controlled possession really well. We made some errors in the game, which they capitalised on and turned into points. The game got away from us, but we fought throughout.

"The last two years, defence been a real positive for us, so it's a shame that we're leaking at the moment.

"But I was really proud of the boys. I know it's hard to say when you just shipped nearly 60 points, but they stayed in the fight.

"We had a number of boys who stepped up from the twos, and we had some backs playing in the forwards. And to be honest, the forwards were not the problem, the forwards matched them and had a little bit of dominance.

"Yes, there's still things to develop, but it wasn't as bad as the Shipston game where we lost our way. We did look like us at the weekend and know where we've got to go from now."

Ludlow's tries came from Henry Evans, Jamie Durban and Sam Brooks with one conversion from Bailey Bach.