Loughborough Students' kept their National Two North title charge at full throttle with an impressive 43-17 win at Kendal.

The trip to the Lake District is never easy and, in difficult conditions, the Students turned in a six-try performance to leave with maximum reward.

They slipped behind to an early penalty but George Drake levelled with a three-pointer of his own after seven minutes.

The Students took control before the break with tries from James Taylor and Tom Cobb. Drake converted both to give them a 17-3 advantage.

The Students made a bad start to the second period, conceding a converted try, but Taylor grabbed his second try and Phil Burgess got the bonus-point try shortly after to put the visitors back in control.

Drake converted Burgess' effort to ensure a 29-10 lead and they never looked back.

In fact, they added to their tally as Henry Pyrgos and Ashley Smith added tries which were both converted by Drake. Kendal added a converted try between those scores but, all in all, it was a good afternoon for Loughborough.

They remain three points clear of Macclesfield, who still have a game in hand.

Leicester Lions, meanwhile, suffered a disappointing 14-7 home loss to Hull Ionians.

Lions were never ahead in the game and trailed 8-0 at the break after conceding a penalty and try.

Hull extended their lead with two more penalties before Jeremy Saxon scored for the Lions with six minutes to go and Jon Boden landed the conversion. That put them back into contention and although they could not find a converted try to equalise, they did at least take a bonus point.

Loughborough Students' next game is at home to Broadstreet and they will hope Lions can do them a favour by denying Macclesfield a win in Cheshire.

Melton Mowbray take a break from the league this weekend and are playing Towcestrians at home in the Midlands semi-final of the National Intermediate Cup.

A win will put Melton in the final and one of four teams vying for a place at Twickenham in the final.

Melton have appealed for their fans to turn out in force for the match which kicks off at 2pm.