They had lost to the Leicestershire side on the away leg earlier in the season, and, having set a goal of beating every team in the League, wanted redress.

Cracking midfield defence, especially from openside Joe Threlfall, combined with the blistering pace of Chrissie George and the collective might of the pack saw them home.

The visitors came out of the traps and created all the early pressure but won no reward as successive penalty kicks flew wide.

Tows gradually got themselves into the game and edged ahead thanks to a penalty from full back James Falvey.

They then ran back a failed clearance kick and George burst through the defence to touch down in the corner. Falvey added an excellent touchline conversion.

Loughborough hit back however when winger Jon Sykes finally found his range and landed a penalty. He then converted a try from fellow winger Steve Sand to level the scores at 10-10.

Tows suffered a further setback when they were reduced to 14 men following a yellow card which forced them to reshuffle the pack.

Fly half Marc Yeates came into No 8 and if Loughborough thought this meant an easier ride, they were wrong.

From a scrum 15 metres out, the rejigged Tows pack drove the opposition back across the try line for scrum half Dave Stocks to score.

After the break, Sykes added a penalty to close the gap to 15-13 and it fell to rugby magician George to conjure the next try.

He tore through the Loughborough defence for a second time to make it 20-13 and ease the nerves of the home crowd.

Tows should then have put the game to bed but several try-scoring chances went begging and when Sykes hit his third penalty, nerves started to jangle once more.

The final word went to the Towcester pack who blasted off a line out drive for mighty prop John Casuebrook to score, sealing a bonus point win.