Letchworth outclass lacklustre Luton

Season's greetings were in short supply at Letchworth as the Green and Reds went down 41-8 in the London one North.

Indeed, it seems a distant memory from the last time these two teams met back in September when Luton triumphed 30-24 at Newlands Road in the second game of the season. Luton’s Director of rugby reflected on this latest defeat as "rather embarrassing, but a fair reflection of the team's performance."

The home team seemed hell-bent on getting their revenge, and served notice as early as the second minute, when rapid winger Gurere Tatinda scored the first try of the afternoon as he side-stepped Luton’s feeble backline. Simon Hrbek was unable to follow up with his conversion.

After this early set back Luton started to get into the game and were awarded a penalty in the 11th minute, which full back Rick Hobbs duly despatched to give the away side three points. This seemed to stir Letchworth back to life, as they gained headway into Luton’s half, and scored a try through Luke Mongston in the 14th minute, to make it 10-3, as another Hrbek conversion went wide.

As the game wore on, Luton gradually asserted pressure on the home side, and in the 18th minute they were awarded another penalty, but Hobbs’s effort was wide. But Luton were able to maintain pressure and scored in the corner through Scott Aspinall, but Hobbs missed the conversion.

In the 26th minute, Luton's Wright saw yellow after a bust up on the touch line. In the 32nd minute, Letchworth made the most of their man advantage as Hrbek kicked through. The bounce favoured Tatinda and he scored his second try of the afternoon.

Hrbek could not follow up with his conversion kick and a minute later, Luton were awarded a penalty, but Hobbs could not convert.

In the 37th minute, Richard Streets executed a brilliant hand-off on Scott Aspinall, and made it 20-8 to the home side, thus resulting in a bonus point, but Hrbek missed the conversion. At the interval, Luton brought on Tesh Edwards for Scott Aspinall.

In the 49th minute, Letchworth scored another try through James Tirrell. This time Hrbek added the to make it 27-8. In the 53rd minute, Streets scored another try that was followed up by Hrbek’s conversion to make it 34-8. In the 77th minute, Thomas Ansell scored a try that was followed up by Hrbek’s conversion kick to finish the game at 41-8.

Afterwards, Luton RFC’s Paul Allen commented: “We are what we are, and it is not a strong team at the moment; it was always going to be a difficult game, and one of the areas we definitely need to improve on is our kicking, which we will be doing over the festive period.”

He further added: “We do not have much power and pace out wide, but we do have some skilled individuals in this team, however we made some bad decisions in key areas.”

Luton will host North Walsham at Newlands road in the new year.

TEAM SHEET London 1 North

Luton RFC: 15- Rick Hobbs 14- Chris Davis 13- Karl Roddell 12- Scott Aspinall 11- Jonathan Wright 10- David Graham 9- Logan Wendt 1- Mobasher Mahmood 2- Benjamin Murphy 3- Luke Spellen 4- Gareth Jahn 5- Sean Meddeman 6- Stuart Tompkinson 7- Adasm Harris 8- Jack Elston

Substitutions: 16- Sam Pacey 17- Teshurn Edwards 18- Ryan Staff.