Luton unable to get one over CS Rugby 1863

Luton RFC continued their losing streak with a 31 – 13 defeat to 6th placed CS Rugby 1863 in their London One North tie.
The visitors took the lead early on in the second minute, after a Luton player was caught offside inside the 22, allowing Tom Hodgson to score an easy penalty.
Just four minutes later, CS Rugby had extended their lead after they got the ball out wide to Will Scott who made his way through a few Luton players before getting over to make it 10 – 0 once Hodgson had kicked the extras.
Luton were not careful enough and gave away another penalty at the ten minute mark for offside but Hodgson nudged it wide, deeming it a lucky escape for the hosts.
Not long after the penalty, CS came close to scoring another try after Will Scott managed to barge through a few Luton players again, but he slipped just before the line, allowing the Luton defence to reshape and prevent the try from being scored.
Stuart Tomkinson was sin binned after kicking out in the 16th minute, which opened the game up a little bit and lead to both teams scoring a penalty each through Hodgson and Rick Hobbs, to make it 13 – 3 by the time he was allowed back on the pitch.
At the half hour mark, Rick Hobbs notched another penalty to bring the Lutonians within 7 points of the visitors and it stayed that way until the break.
Luton came out in the second half looking dangerous as ever, they had CS pinned back inside their 22 and were piling on the pressure, but the visitors held in there and managed to stop Luton from creeping on them.
In the 47th minute, CS Rugby 1863 scored another penalty after a Luton player was caught offside again, then three minutes later, Adam Harris was sin binned for an infringement in a ruck just under the posts, which gave Hodgson another easy penalty to make it 19 – 6.
Despite these two penalties, Luton were still the better side and in the 52nd minute, Christopher Davies turned over possession in CS’ 22 and offloaded it to Robert Povey who got through the defence and over the line with Hobbs kicking the extras.
The hosts were now just six points behind their opponents, but completely against the run of play, Tom Hogg managed to score a try in the 55th minute, putting the score just out of reach for the home side at 26 – 13.
This did not mean that the hosts gave in though, as they kept pressuring the opposition and looking likely to score another try, which they nearly did after the ball found its way out wide to Tyler Chant in a great position but he was unable to catch the pass to set him free.
The final chance of the match came from the away side in the 70th minute after setting up a catch and drive inside Luton’s 22 and driving with ease past the line for Josh Forrester to ground the ball.
Luton second row Jonathan Kerr believes silly mistakes cost them the game. He said: “We played well, it was a close game in terms of performance and we worked really hard together as a team but unfortunately they had the better spells.
“I think it was quite equal, however, they made the most of their opportunities and we gave away a lot of silly penalties in silly places which gave them a comfortable lead in the end.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate we’re moving down a league but if we keep the core team, we can go from strength to strength, then it’s only up from there.”