Loughborough Students 30

Huddersfield RU 30

(National II North)

TRIES by skipper Nick Sharpe and Tom Owen in the opening and closing minutes sealed a deserved draw in the Midlands.

But, not for the first time, it came down to a last-gasp kick from the League’s leading scorer Chris Johnson, who converted Owen’s 80th-minute effort from the touchline to earn the draw and push Field up to fifth place.

Huddersfield began well with Sharpe going in for the opening try in the first minute of the game andJohnson knocked over a touchline conversion and followed up with penalties in the 20th and 28th minutes.

In between, Students kicker Andy Hall notched a three-pointer for his side, and then finished off a flowing move to grab Loughborough’s first try around the half-hour mark, his own conversion reducing the deficit to 13-10 at the break.

Johnson added a third penalty before the Students took control midway through the second period.

With an hour gone, Loughborough’s No8 finished off a sustained spell of pressure for the first of two converted tries, and seven minutes later, centre Ed Rolsten raced in for an individual effort to which Hall also added the extras, plus a second penalty to push the Students into a 30-16 lead.

Huddersfield refused to buckle however, and began to exert their own pressure on the Students’ defence, which suddenly gave way when winger Adam Sutcliffe scooted in for his first try of the season, Johnson again on the mark with the conversion.

Huddersfield’s tails were now up and as they continued to pile on the pressure Loughborough began to wobble and lost two men to yellow cards for slowing the ball down and then for a high tackle.

And that was all the opportunity Huddersfield needed as they sucked in the hosts forwards and then whipped the ball out wide to Owen to score on the last play of the game.

With the scores now standing at 30-28 to the hosts, Johnson coolly stepped up to send the conversion between the posts and Huddersfield had an excellent draw in the bag.