The Lions travelled to in-form Rosslyn Park possibly more in hope than expectation but in the end were very unlucky not to win the contest.

The hosts were gifted their first score when a handling error with their first possession was pounced upon by Matt Woodward. Converted by Steffan James for a 7-0 lead after just one minute.

The Lions responded well to the early setback though and 10 minutes later Jordan Tebbatt charged down a box kick and won the race to ground the ball. Unfortunately Luke Bouchier pulled the relatively easy conversion just wide of the uprights (7-5).

Rosslyn Park extended their lead when Will Glover scored out wide from a neat lineout strike play. Again James was on target with the extras (14-5).

Once again the Lions responded well and, following a period of pressure, it was Tebbatt who again got over the line. The Lions had battered away at the Park line before the blindside snuck over from close range. Bouchier was on target this time. (14-12).

Park got the final say of an evenly contested first period when Jordan Martin crossed following a quick tap-and-go by Ewan Fenley that drew a (very harsh) yellow card for Joe Brock for not retreating 10m (even though he clearly came from behind the try line). James converted again for a 21-12 lead at the break.

The second half was a very different affair as the Lions gained set piece dominance and the hosts struggled to secure any possession. In fact the home side only had one visit to the Lions 22 during the whole half.

The Lions dominated both possession and territory but resolute defence from Park, and some ill-timed handling errors, meant that the score remained the same until the 63rd minute when Ethan Godefroy crashed over. Bouchier added the extras to reduce the home sides' lead to just two points (21-19).

Despite a lot of pressure the Lions couldn't find the winning score and although the performance deserved more they had to settle for an impressive bonus point against the side who moved up to 3rd in the league.

Head coach Gareth Collins commented: ''It is obviously desperately disappointing to lose when we felt that we had done enough to win but Park are a top side and we have gone toe-to-toe with them. We have had a number of near-misses against the top sides in the division in recent weeks, which is frustrating, but I'm confident that we'll pick up the wins in that we need to stay up in the last 6 weeks if we continue to perform at this level. ''