Betteshanger suffered a heavy 42-10 defeat at big-spending Tonbridge Juddians in London 2 South East on Saturday.

The real difference between the teams was the quality of the home backs whose line-up included Gert De Kock, a close season acquisition from National League 2 South side Canterbury.

Juddians opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a converted try before a fiery confrontation between the packs saw Lions No.8 Wes Bull sin-binned alongside two of the Judds side.

Lions were 10-0 down but missed three kickable penalties and conceded two tries to their clinical opponents in the final 10 minutes of the first half to go in 22-0 down at the break.

One pleasing aspect for the Lions supporters was that their front row of Ashley Hollingworth, Nick Tweed and Matthew Curd gave nothing away to the home front row who included two former Lions Arthur Evans and Carl Ambrose.

Judds went 29-0 ahead within a minute of the restart before Curd drove over for a try after the Lions won a line-out 10 metres from the Judds line.

Sam Hanley and Stuart Adcock replaced Ashley Hollingworth and Curd for the Lions before Judds extended their lead to 42-5.

The Lions responded with a try of their own when Luke Armstrong finished a good three quarter move with a try in the right corner.

Rugby round-up in this week's Mercury