Portico Vine 18 Pilkington Recs 26

RECS' youthful squad made a great start to the new campaign to win a fiery derby tussle that was only settled in the last five minutes.

Winger Barry Pope gave Recs an early lead with a penalty goal before Mark Ashton extended the advantage with a try on the left flank. The pacy full-back finished well after Critchley and winger James Lacey had opened up the Vine defence.

With Loughlin and fellow prop Graham Cranney making the hard yards down the middle, well marshalled by hooker John Ford, Recs took control of the game.

They extended their lead when swift handling opened up space for centre Andy Lyons and Ashton on the left and the ball was worked inside to Critchley who scored.

A Pope goal made it 12-0, but Vine closed the gap when stand-off Chris Diamond dummied his way past two defenders to score a try converted by scrum-half Lee Cunningham.

That left the half-time score at 12-6, but with powerful second-rower Neil Kearns and loose-forward Willy Kelly lively in midfield the home side gathered momentum.

Five minutes into the second-half they drew level after touching down a high kick that was fumbled by Ashton. Cunningham converted.

Recs rallied but, after twice having tries ruled out for infringements, needed a Loughlin penalty goal to put them back in front.

Cunningham responded with a penalty to again tie the scores, but when Critchley intercepted and raced 40 yards for an unconverted try Recs looked to have sealed it.

Vine hit back, though, when Kelly charged onto a short Diamond pass but Cunningham's conversion from just to the right of the posts crucially went wide leaving the scores level.

Loughlin then struck another penalty to edge Recs ahead before Lyons sprinted under the posts from 30 yards after another fine Critchley break.

Best for Recs were Critchley, Ford and Ashton, with Diamond, Kearns and Kelly impressing for Vine.