Huddersfield RUFC remain fighting for their lives in the National II North after a 21-13 loss to Sedgley Park.

Three converted first-half tries from the away side at soggy Lockwood Park were too much for Gareth Lewis’s side to come back from, despite a late onslaught.

Sedgley were ahead within two minutes when a rolling maul led to a release for their outside-centre.

Another maul led to another try just five minutes later when their blindside flanker cut into the right, and the two tries were converted with no problem.

Dan Jeffrey was forced off with an injury and Elliot Hodgson returned to the field after a spell out injured.

Austen Thompson also returned to the team from the bench in the first half after his suspension.

The Field did come back in to the game when Chris Bell scored a penalty, but after neat play from right to left, Sedgley found themselves in again to extend their lead.

Bell again scored a penalty before half time which put his side back in the game.

A promising start to the second half left the Lockwood Park faithful encouraged, but the promotion chasers proved a tough team to break down.

Liam Parfitt scored an impressive try with just 10 minutes left after neat play down the left.

But Huddersfield remain without a win in 2016.

“The start we made affected the outcome of the game,” said Lewis.

“To concede soft early tries meant we were always playing catch-up. To do this against one of the top sides in the league was always going to be a big ask.

“Sedgley Park are a big physical side and they showed their strength early doors, but I do feel we showed them too much respect,

“Territorially we dominated the second half. We scored an excellent try through Liam Parfitt but could not turn pressure into points which was frustrating.

“I thought Ben Hoyle was outstanding yet again, Austen came back into the team and showed why we missed him, and Elliot Hodgson made a big impact too,

“If we play like we did here, and hopefully on some drier tracks, we will make the Huddersfield faithful proud of what we do between now and the final game of the season,

“We have a special group of lads here and through these challenging experiences I’m convinced we will be a better side in the long run.”

Try-scorer Parfitt added: “It was a really tough game. I thought we came out really well in the second half and the boys put in a really good performance.

“But those first 15 minutes killed us. We conceded two soft tries and were struggling from there.

“With the break next week (Huddersfield have no fixture this coming weekend) it could be an advantage. We’ll be at training next week and we’ll watch the game back, where we’ll be able to get a lot of good detail done.

“We’ll work on everything that needs to be done. We have a good run until the end of the season now. Everyone is still firing, and we will keep going to the end.”

Huddersfield: Hodson, Kanauros, Owen, Bell, Workman, Hinchliffe, Jeffrey, Battye, Bradley, Tamanis, Rhodes (G), Rhodes (N), Parfitt, Hoyle, Malthouse. Bench – Baxter, Hodgson, Fletcher, Walker, Thompson.

Substitutions: 12 Elliot Hodgson for Dan Jeffrey, 25 Austen Thompson for Nick Rhodes, 40 Nick Rhodes for Gavin Rhodes, 47 Tom Baxter for Adam Tamanis, 47 Henry Walker for Lewis Bradley, 67 Elliot Fletcher for Lewis Workman, 73 Lewis Bradley for Liam Parfitt.