With just 4 games remaining and their rivals for promotion also gaining bonus point victories, Saturday’s home fixture against 3rd place Darlington Mowden Park now assumes epic proportion and looks likely to be decisive for both sides’ promotion campaigns.

The Saxons played into the fresh breeze in a scrappy, error-strewn first half during which Lucs took an 2nd minute lead with a Will Burton penalty. Jamie Hearn was unable to claw back the advantage when his penalty attempt flew wide. Though under early pressure in the scrums the Saxons’ pack started to dominate towards the end of the half, bossing the contact area and pressurising the Lucs defence which started to cough up penalties and eventually saw scrum half Ben Williams yellow carded for killing the ball. The Saxons’ kicked for the corner and after a series of drives flanker Nigel Mukarati drove over in the corner. With Burton also missing a late penalty attempt the Saxons went in with a narrow 5-3 halftime lead.

The wind swung round to the North, denying the Saxons’ the 2nd half tactical advantage and forcing them to run the ball. Lucs conceded a penalty for side entry, it was kicked to the corner and though the initial surge was held out the arrival of the midfield backs gave the maul fresh momentum and Mukarati was driven over for his 2nd try.

A loose touch kick enabled Lucs to run from deep, but an attempted offload went loose and was gathered by lock Ben Hughes. The Saxons countered down the right flank where Nathan Bressington was held up just short but was able to recycle the ball, Pete White moving it back left to stretch the defences for full back Tom Jarvis to squeeze over in the corner. Lucs upped their game though and hit back on the hour mark when no.8 Brad Talbot barged his way over in the corner after some slack Saxons’ defending.

Hughes’ efforts were rewarded when he gathered the restart kick, launching a sweeping set of Saxons’ moves that were only held out by Lucs’ winger Drew Cheshire killing the ball and earning himself 10min in the sinbin. The Saxons’ kicked for the corner then drove up the middle, pulling in defenders before moving it wide where flanker Eji Uzoigwe found Bressington in space on the wing to secure the bonus point 4th try.

The Saxons were content to defend their lead and emptied the subs bench. A late revival by Lucs caused alarm bells to ring however and Mukarati got to cool his heels in the sinbin for killing the ball. Lucs set siege to the Saxons’ line but were repelled until the final minute when a depleted scrum was driven back and a penalty try earned the hosts a well-deserved bonus point.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell commented : ‘We did just about enough today to secure the 5 point win, but let’s not kid ourselves that won’t be good enough next week - we are going to need a huge performance from everybody involved to turn over Mowden Park. Nothing less than a win is good enough mind, but I am confident we can do the job having learned from the bitter disappointment of last season’s finale’.