Shelford won the toss and from the kick off it was immediately apparent that the pre-season work was worth all the pain. Sprinting into the Lutterworth half, Shelford immediately put their opponents under pressure, and this was soon transformed into points with a try from (new French winger Bertille Gleize). More points followed, with the forwards' efforts allowing the backs to follow their game plan and exploit the weaknesses in Lutterworth's defensive line. A special mention should also go to number 6, Evie, who caught Lutterworth's restart after a Shelford try and ran the ball straight back over try line before kicking the conversion.

Lutterworth were held up again and again by Shelford's defence, which has definitely improved with the repeated drills at training, and the home side only made it over the try line twice in the first half. Meanwhile, the pressure was kept up by the visitors and their score slowly crept further away from the opposition, so that as the referee blew his whistle at the end of the half Shelford already had a comfortable lead to work with (36-10).

The second half continued in a similar fashion, with the whole team working together to keep going forward and take the ball over Lutterworth's line. The Shelford pack forced Lutterworth onto the back foot in the scrummage and proved that they have the muscle to really compete this season, as well as the pace that saw prop Daniele grounding the ball for five points.

There are obviously things that the team will have to work on in future training sessions, but even when unforced errors were made, the team re-grouped and held firm, leading to the score at fulltime being a solid 48-20. Shelford will now hope to use the forward momentum from this performance to make a strong statement about their league campaign at Longton next weekend.

Forward of the Match: Daniele Gibney
Back of the Match: Bertille Gleize