They retain 3rd place in National 2 North, with the top 4 now clear their promotion hopes depend largely on crunch encounters with Sedgley Park (Feb 1st, away), Macclesfield (Mar 1st, away) & Darlington Mowden Park (Mar 29th, home).

The Saxons came full tilt out of the starting blocks, a Ben Barkley break in his own half shredding the home defence and putting scrum half Pete White in to score with barely a minute on the clock. The hosts hit back with a try for winger Sam Kendall and they edged into the lead shortly after when the Saxons transgressed in the tackle area gifting outside half Alex Zavallis-Roebuck a straightforward penalty kick.

The Saxons struggled to retain possession but the hosts were unable to breach what remains the meanest defence in the league. Preston conceded an attacking lineout in their 22 and drew a warning for pulling down a driving maul that was threatening their line, the Saxons reloaded and it was no.8 Drew Harper – making his first appearance of the season – who bagged the try as a maul was driven over.

Preston responded before the break with another try in the corner for Kendall, leaving the game finely balanced 13-12 at halftime. He could have had a third when he fumbled his interception of an optimistic White pass, but the Saxons rode their luck, worked their way downfield and secured an attacking 5m scrum from which Harper picked up and blasted through the home defences to score.

Preston wouldn’t give up though and forced the Saxons to spend large tracts of the 2nd half grimly defending their line. They broke out after a big hit by outside-half Sam Robinson enabled prop Mike Hill to force a penalty at the tackle as the hosts were driven backwards. They worked their way back upfield where a neat White kick forced a Preston lineout seep in their own 22. The throw was picked off by 2nd row Ben Hughes, and with the entire backline throwing their weight into the maul it was forced over the line with captain Mark George the scorer.

Disaster struck Preston’s final counterattack as they chased a well-deserved bonus point, sub James Rodley turning over possession at a tackle near halfway to enable centre Stef Shillingford and fullback Tom Jarvis to exchange passes and put sub Bobbie Lawrenson in for the final try. Fulltime 13-31.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell observed : ”As often a fantastic start following which we took our foot off the gas and tried to force the play in too many phases. Rather than delivering the game plan and sticking to our strengths we ended up chasing the game, putting ourselves at huge risk of not just missing the bonus point but also of potentially losing the game. The scoreline flatters us and does little credit to the performance of Preston, we have plenty to work on in training this week”.