Luton come up short against Brentwood

This was a closely fought encounter but both teams combined to offer a first-half performance strewn with errors and penalties. It appeared that the festive atmosphere had caught up with the players up until the final 20 minutes when they realised there was a match to win and the game kicked into life.

In the opening exchanges the home side spurned the chance to register the first points on the scoreboard, as Rick Hobbs first penalty attempt of the afternoon went wide.

As the match grew into a contest, it appeared as though the referee’s interpretation of the laws was causing some difficulties and the game was unable to flow with numerous penalties being awarded which neither side was able to take advantage of.

Rick Hobbs missed another one in the 15th minute and so the pattern continued with both sides missing kickable opportunities to score. The first half finished scoreless.

The visitors registered the first try of the afternoon after only two minutes of the restart through their scrum half Declan Gillette, but Bird’s conversion went wide.

Luton seemed to be spurred on and hit back nine minutes later through Will Temperley who, after a series of great rucks from the home side, smashed through the backline and scored under the posts. Hobbs followed up with the conversion to make it 7-5.

In the 59th minute, Luton extended their lead as Jonny Wright touched down in the corner to make it 12-5. Hobbs could not capitalise with a conversion kick from the touch line.

In the 65th minute, having won a turnover ball, Brentwood’s Eddie Greenfield was able to outpace Luton’s backline and score in the corner for a well created try, James Cowen followed up with a difficult conversion to draw the match 12-12.

In the 70th minute, Luton gave away another penalty that Henry Bird duly converted to make it 12-15. From the restart, James Cowen gathered a speculated chip ahead and outpaced the Luton backline to score another try for the visitors and make it 12-20. Bird missed his conversion.

In the final minutes, Luton threw everything at Brentwood, but determined tackling prevented them from scoring until Scott Aspinall popped up with his first try of the season, but it was too little too late. The match ended 17-20.

Afterwards, Luton RFC’s prop Dwayne Duffy commented: “It was a rather disappointing performance, but we know this team can do much better. Today we had an off-day, but we will bounce back.”