OLD Halesonians lost their first home game of the season with a narrow 20-16 defeat against Ludlow.

It was a close-run game where Old Hales were dominant in the first ten minutes in attacking in the oppositions 22.

Scrum half Jamie Keen supplied a fine pass to prop forward Richie Taylor who burst through the defence to score under the posts. The conversion followed by winger Nick Adams.

A few minutes later, Old Hales were caught offside and Ludlow took advantage to score three penalty points. More pressure from Old Halesonians resulted in two penalty kicks from Adams which meant the score at half time was 13-3.

You could be forgiven for thinking a different squad started the second half where ill-discipline and defensive errors cost Old Halesonians.

Ludlow scored three quick tries in succession, successfully converting only one of them.

In the last 15 minutes, Old Hales fought back with aggressive running from captain Carl Robinson and No. 8 Wayne Cooper. This pressure resulted in a Ludlow player being yellow carded for persistent offside and a final penalty for Old Hales but they could not break down the Ludlow defence.

Head coach James Angove said: “We cannot make this amount of defensive errors and give away penalties if we are to achieve our goals for the 2019/2020 season. This game has exposed areas we need to work on in training ahead of next week’s fixture away at Newbold on Avon."