Luton hammer Woodford

The home team came into the match, following back-to-back losses against North Walsham away (36-16) and last weekend’s disappointing home loss (37-18) against Colchester.

The opening quarter of an hour was rather uneventful as both teams were unable to gain the upper hand due to slippery conditions, where loose passing and knocked on were the theme for both sides.

As the half progressed, Luton gained momentum as their passing improved, and Craig South was able to bag his first try of the afternoon in the 23rd minute. Rick Hobbs missed the resulting conversion. The remainder of the half was affected by windy conditions, as both teams looked to kick to touch and win lineouts, rather than pass. Luton went into the interval leading 5-0.

Luton picked up where they left off in the first half, as Hobbs slide-in to score a try in the 51st minute, before picking himself up to slot the resulting kick to give Luton a dominant 12-0 lead. In the 59th minute, Jonny Wright increased Luton’s lead to 17-0 as he scored his first try of the season. Hobbs missed the resulting conversion however.

Luton continued to assert their dominance in the 67th minute, as Craig South scored his second try of the afternoon to make it 22-0. Again, on a bad afternoon with the boot, Hobbs was unable to make the conversion. In the 71st minute Hobbs increased Luton’s lead by scoring a try after a beautiful dummy and side step by Adam Harris. Hobbs scored the conversion to give Luton a 29-0 lead.

In the 73rd minute, Edwards scored a try for Luton, but Hobbs missed the conversion. A flurry of substitutions by Woodford followed but they were unable to halt the Luton tide as Jonny Wright scored his second try of the afternoon in the 77th minute but Scott Aspinell missed the conversion.

After the victory, skills coach Chris Parr said: “The first half was a bit scrappy, and we had too many unforced errors, but it has been a couple of tough weeks and we chatted with the boys about this at the interval.”

On the result, Parr added: “We cut our errors down from the first half and we incorporated what we do in training, and in the second period, we picked it up a notch and overwhelmed Woodford with the number of tries we registered.”

Luton RFC will host Barking next weekend at Newlands Road.

Match Reporter Nigel Makale