Luton suffer defeat to a strong North Walsham side

Luton rugby club manager Dicky Jones is remaining positive despite suffering from a tenth defeat in a row.
He said: “Considering our circumstances today, I think the lads have done more than what we’ve asked. We asked them to go out and give us some heart; we knew we were coming to a team that plays very well at home.
“We’ve come with a depleted squad thanks to our webmaster* who decided the fixture was next week so we were ten players down which made it very difficult for us.
“The guys that stepped up to the plate today, have given food for thought for next week. There were some sterling performances from players that were out of position and we’ve got a lot to think about now.
We know we’re on the back end of the stick but we’ve just got to keep fighting and turning up every week and putting in the hard work and we’ll get there.”
Luton lost their London One North tie against the North Walsham Vikings 31 – 8 and stay rooted to the bottom of the table.
North Walsham began the game brightly as they drove a maul close to the try line and passed it out to Freddie Henley-Hunter who got over, making it 5 – 0 with just two minutes gone.
Luton defended well against a strong North Walsham side but 25 minutes in, Matthew Hodgson faked a pass and cut through to score a try, scoring the conversion too.
The Vikings got through again two minutes from half time after Ryan Oakes feinted a pass and got through, passing it to Shane Janse Van-Veuren who grounded the ball to end the half 19 – 0.
The visitors came out strong in the second half after Chris Davies played an excellent chip over the North Walsham defence and after some pressure, they passed the ball out to Casimir Abaka who got over to make it 19 – 5.
Luton kept the pressure on and looked to score another try, but North Walsham countered quickly and scored another try in the seventh minute, this time through Akmaan Downing.
The wave of attacks from North Walsham didn’t seem to stop but again Luton held them off well, especially in the 15th minute when Hodgson was taken down just before the try line and play was called back for a knock-on.
By the hour-mark, the home side had received two yellow cards so Luton took advantage of this and piled on the pressure, nearly scoring after Abaka caught a grubber kick, but the hosts held off the attack well until their two men returned to the field.
Just five minutes later, Luton were awarded a penalty for not releasing the ball which Robert Povey scored to bring the score slightly closer, but shortly after, Wayne Hemson received a yellow card after being caught offside during a lineout.
The final chance of the match came in the 34th minute after Hodgson cut through the defence again and passed it to Henley-Hunter who scored his second try of the day to end it 31 – 8.

* To correct a misconception, the fixtures error was not down to Luton's webmaster. We rely on Pitchero to provide the fixtures list and grid for the 1st Team matches in London 1 North. Unfortunately, the North Walsham v Luton fixture was not on this list and the error was not spotted until quite late. I have now requested, and been granted, administration rights on the Pitchero London 1 North league. I have found and corrected a total of three missing fixtures for Luton 1st Team (and a couple of dozen more across the entire league). Jimmy Hanafin