Improved performance not enough for Luton

Luton remain stuck at the bottom of the table following a 21 – 39 loss to Old Priorians in their London One North tie.
The visitors got right into the game from the start as they scored a penalty just two minutes in, then scored a try just after Christopher Davies received a yellow card in the seventh minute.
Old Priorians didn’t fully take advantage of the extra man and there were no dangerous attacks until the 16th minute where Luton were awarded a penalty right in front of the posts, for an infringement in a scrum, which Rick Hobbs scored with ease to make it 3 – 8.
Despite the constant pressure from Luton, just four minutes later Old Priorians got over again, putting them ten points ahead of Luton, but they were still well within reach and Hobbs scored another penalty just after conceding the try.
Luton were playing some good rugby, vastly improved from last week’s performance against Ruislip and nearly got over when Aidan Kenny played a grubber kick towards Ryan Hendry but it went out for touch just before Hendry could get his hands on it.
In the 25th minute, the pressure finally paid off as Tom Mahendran made a great run towards the line and formed a maul, which allowed him to pick up the ball and ground it to make the score 11 – 13.
Old Priorians didn’t have the majority of possession but when they got the ball, they made it count as they got over again five minutes later to extend their lead to seven points, but just before half time, Hobbs scored another penalty to end the first half with the score 14 – 18.
Luton came out in the second half with the belief that they could come out of this game with a win, but the away side had other ideas after winning a 5m scrum two minutes into the second half, that they sent over the line to make it 14 – 25.
Old Priorians seemed to dominate the second half and got another two almost identical tries in the 50th and 60th minute to put them well ahead of the hosts 14 – 39.
The final chance of the game came two minutes from the end as David Hamm managed to barge his way through the stubborn Old Priorians line and touched down to score a consolation try.
Luton manager Dicky Jones seemed happy with his team’s performance despite the ‘ever-looming’ threat of relegation.
He said: “It’s a very difficult situation to be in for the boys and to bounce back like we did. We talked a lot through the week about how me must improve and how the very real situation of going down is ever-looming but we’re very pleased with the boys who have come out and put their heart on their sleeves and yet again it sadly wasn’t enough this week.
“We weren’t expecting Old Priorians to be as strong as they were but they were very good at getting the ball wide quickly, which we had identified, but they were very good at what they did today and that was the difference.
“Communication is key for us and as long as we can keep those channels open with the boys, we feel we will be successful in the future.
“Last week and this week were both games that we should’ve got a result from.”