Top-five target as buoyant Ludlow look for back-to-back wins

Ludlow end their calendar year at The Linney this Saturday, hoping to build on last weekend’s 35-15 win over Worcester Wanderers as they host fellow Midlands One West mid-tablers Old Halesonians.

Seventh-placed Ludlow are only four points off fourth spot and Jones has already earmarked a top-five finish as the aim for his newly-promoted troops.

Jones said: “Going into Christmas, we knew we had two home games against teams around us in the table – we’ve picked off the first team, Worcester, and now we have to pick off Old Halesonians.

“We want to try to create as big a gap as possible between ourselves and these sides below us.

“We’ve played everyone in the league now and seen what they are like so we can have a good go at them in the reverse fixtures.

“Seeing what we have played already, we can definitely achieve a top-five finish.

“That we haven’t managed back-to-back wins probably shows our away form has struggled a little bit but we always see our home as a fortress and we will try to put that [statistic] right on Saturday.”

Ludlow won 20-16 at Old Hales in September and Jones added: “It was tale of two halves, we struggled first half but then got our tactics right and our fitness definitely prevailed.”

It was a similar story last Saturday as Ludlow came from 15-13 down at half-time to claim a bonus-point win over Wanderers.

Ludlow had sped into a 13-0 lead with penalties from Will Sparrow – who suffered a suspected dislocated collarbone soon after – and Will Hodnett, who then converted Joe Doyle’s try.

Worcester, though, rallied with three unconverted and unanswered tries to lead by two points at the break.

However, hooker Jack Small burst from a ruck and left two players in his wake to score to restore Ludlow's lead before scrum-half Rhys Perkins jinked over.

Hodnett scored in the corner to make it 28-15 before a late penalty try completed the scoring.