UPTON Rugby Club remain top of Midlands Four West (South) after a hard-fought 17-12 victory over Coventry Welsh.

There is a feeling the riverside town are riding their luck a little and this was the case against Welsh, when fielding a side missing five first-team regulars.

The shortage resulted in a first game for veteran prop Shaun Lancett after seven years out.

Upton had heard about the Welsh pack’s strength and their size suggested a long afternoon at the scrum.

But the hosts’ smaller pack gained parity at the breakdown and, with enough quality line-out ball from Matt Bookham, Upton had enough to throw the ball wide.

However, they never really got their game flowing despite threatening to at times.

Upton went ahead when a Welsh attack broke down on halfway and full-back Oli Swift outpaced the cover defence to score but missed the conversion.

Upton dominated the half without threatening to cross the line again although Swift had two penalty chances.

But the new kicker, stepping in for Chris O’Neil who was on holiday, had an off-day with the boot.

The home side rued the misses as Welsh pinned Upton on their line and, after five minutes of stout defence, they finally prevailed and levelled the half-time scores.

Upton now knew, despite their dominance, they were in a game and made a concerted effort to put pressure on the kick-off.

With Alex Flower in the back row, the converted winger chased the kick and made Welsh hack clear.

Full-back Swift caught the clearance and made off to the open side.

He found winger Sam Buck, who broke through his man before offloading to centre George Ainge and he sped in from 20 metres to score.

Swift again missed the conversion to make it 10-5.

But Upton started to fall foul of the referee’s whistle and Welsh trundled up field.

After more defensive heroics, Welsh broke through the fringes to score and convert to go ahead.

Upton now had a game on their hands but the calming influence of Lancett galvanised them to regain the lead.

From a quick line-out, Rob Heeley fed Lancett with a cheeky short throw.

The forwards drove on and then scrum-half Dan Aldersey fed fly-half Matt Cock.

The ball went along the line through Will Dovey, who then found Swift and he went around the outside defence.

As the cover defence came across, he sent an overhead pass back inside to the supporting winger Josh Finch and he touched down.

Swift found his kicking boots from wide out to convert, which seemed to deflate Welsh as they had to settle for a losing bonus point.