BROMSGROVE suffered a huge body blow in their battle for survival at National League 3 South West level when losing 27-22 to second from bottom Launceston at Finstall Park.

The game turned on its head after 20 minutes when Bromsgrove had second row Sam Knott sent off for an alleged high tackle leaving his side with a huge uphill task.

Bromsgrove were already trailing 10-3 at the time and immediately fell further behind when Launceston kicked the resulting penalty into the corner and then duly drove over from the following line-out for a converted try.

At 17-3 down and reduced to 14 players, Bromsgrove had a mountain to climb.

Bromsgrove head coach Dan Protherough said: "The sending off seemed to galvanise us and we played some superb rugby in the second half and should have gone onto win the game.

"I was really gutted for my players at the end because we really took the game to Launceston.

"We chose to operate with eight forwards and six back for the second half, which seemed to work because we got ourselves right back into the game.

"It would be easy to criticise the referee, be we can't blame him for everything.

"The truth is that we lost the game in the first 20 minutes when we didn't perform as we should have."

James Upton took over the goal kicking duties from the injured Jon Critichlow and landed a first half penalty as Bromsgrove trailed 17-3 by half time.

Flankers Ed Garbutt and Tom Wilson both scored tries in the second half, one of which was converted by Upton, who also kicked the extras to a penalty try.

Protherough added: "Obviously we face an uphill task to remain in this division now but the spirit amongst the players remains as good as ever. We're just not finishing off sides when we've had the chance and that has been the story of our season."

Bromsgrove have no fixture this Saturday.