Colchester hang on - just ...

London One North: Colchester 29 (19) V Luton 24 (3)

by Adam Busfield

A second half fight back was not enough for Luton to record their second victory of London One North season, as they were defeated 29-24 at Colchester.

Colchester took full control of the game from the start as they took advantage of the strong breeze behind their backs, but Luton didn’t help themselves as they struggled to adapt their game to the weather conditions.

Colchester opened the scoring in the 15th minute after Luton gifted them with possession in their own 22. And the hosts’ took full advantage of this when Dan Whiteman took a quick tap-penalty to power over next to the posts. James Crozier converted.

Luton responded five minutes later when fly-half Tom Wilmore made a clean break down field only for the hosts to be penalised for not releasing in the tackle, Jake Hobbs added the penalty to take the score to 7-3 with quarter of the game played.

The Hosts’ responded immediately, when center Joe Flexman credited from a good break from Dave Philp who broke down the right before feeding Flexman to score under the post for a converted try.

Luton continued to struggle with the strong wind and the hosts dealt more misery onto the visitors with just seconds of the first half remaining, when Joe McMillan collected the ball from the back of a maul and ran over two weak challenges to score an unconverted try to take the score to 19-3 at the break.

Paul Allen, Director of Rugby at Luton would not have been happy with his sides’ first half performance as they struggled to adapt to the windy conditions, but the Visitors had it all to play for in the second half with the wind behind their backs.

Luton could not have asked for a better start to the second half when Steve Ellis crossed with less than a minute on the clock. A poor clearing kick by Colchester was collected by David Irvine who charged 20 meters down field before being tackled and on the next play Ellis pushed off two defenders to score Luton’s first try, J.Hobbs Converting.

The game was very tight as both teams were making simple errors but Luton yet again gifted their opponents with territory in 57th minute when a loose pass was picked up by winger Simon Parkinson who was cut down just in front of the sticks and Luton were caught offside the next play, Crozier slotted over the penalty to extend their lead to 12 points with a quarter of the game to play.

Luton closed the gap in the 68th minute when J.Hobbs intercepted a long pass to race 80 meters to score a converted try.

The hosts’ looked to have sealed the win when Crozier crossed for a converted try after a strong break by center Matt Smith fed the full back to place down under the posts, 29-17 Colchester.

This only seemed to snap Luton into life and in the 74th minute Colchester was down to 14 men after Crozier saw yellow after a dreadful high tackle on Doug Fluker who looked certain to score.

This seemed to rile up the players and on the next play a 30-man brawl broke out and Luton’s Matt Yang saw yellow for his involvement in the altercation.

Luton gave themselves some hope of getting something out of the game in the 77th minute when Dave Brennan broke down the left before cutting across the field to feed Tom Mahendren who placed down under the post, with Rik Hobbs converting, 29-24.

The visitors thought they had stolen the game in the dying seconds when Ellis broke through to place down, but the referee ruled that he had lost the ball in the collision over the line.

Luton Team: Sam Pacey (Mark Tindall 58), David Irvine, Jack Elbore, Pat Nelly (Matt Yang 34), Tom Albone, Ryan Staff, Kevin Scales, Micheal Weston, Tom Mahendren, Tom Wilmore (Rik Hobbs 68), Dave Brennan, Steve Ellis, Jake Hobbs, Will Affleck, Doug Fluker. T: Ellis, J.Hobbs, Mahendren. C: J.Hobbs 2, R.Hobbs. P: J.Hobbs

Colchester Team: Joe McMillan (Kieran Payne 57), Charlie Thorogood, Miles Pitcher, Graham Hay, Liam Pickett, Dan Brennan (John Dave 47), Ollie Picket, Dan Whiteman, Brett Cutbush, Dave Higgins, Simon Parkinson, Joe Flexman, Matt Smith, Dave Philp (Tom Jepson 70), James Cozier. T: Whiteman, Flexman, McMillan, Crozier. C: Crozier 3. P: Crozier

Referee: Matthew Shales Touch Judges: Jon Roberts, Jeremiah Hanafin
Luton Star Man: Tom Mahendren. Very busy and his defence was solid all game and also got himself on the score sheet.