Luton lose out despite late rally

And after clawing their way back from 14-0 to pull level with their hosts, Luton thought they had stolen the spoils at the death but the referee adjudged that Wright was held up over the try line at the end of this action-packed and eventful afternoon.

The match official arrived almost half an hour later, due to traffic. No sooner had he arrived than the action was underway, with Chingford looking buoyed by the warm weather, and they registered their first points on the scoreboard via a try from scrum half Ben Bolton-Smith in only the fourth minute. Full back Ryan Pask followed up with a conversion moments later, to make it a dream start.

Following that raucous start, Luton upped the tempo of the game, with Garry Jahn in particular looking strong in the tackle and using his height advantage to win line-out balls. As the game begun to settle, Chingford were slowly winning their way into Luton’s half of the pitch, via scrums and diagonal kicks, but a moment of madness from Chingford’s scrum half Ian Martin in the 22nd minute brought proceedings to a halt.

Martin and Luton’s Mahendran were contesting a loose ball following a failed scrum in a swarm of bodies that were sprawled on the ground. In the ensuing fracas Martin punched Mahendran.

Luton had every right to protest the decision of Mahendran getting sin-binned along with the culprit. From then on, the game was a bit tetchy, due to players trying to maintain their composure, up until the interval where Chingford went in leading 7-0.

At the start of the second period, Luton rang in the changes as Scott Aspinall came on for Jonathan Wright. The away side were awarded an early penalty that Mahendran could not capitalise on. Moments later, Chingford won a penalty of their own that fly half Daniel Boughtwood kicked way off target. In the 52nd minute, the home side increased their advantage in a scrappy manner through their hooker Billie Mackie, and it was followed up by Boughtwood who made it 14-0.

At that juncture, one would feel that the game was slipping from Luton’s hands, but coaches Chris Parr and Darren Moore rallied their team from the side lines, and slowly but surely, Luton’s confidence started to show and Logan Wendt scored a brace of tries, converted by Scott Aspinall, after waltzing his way through a broken Chingford backline in the 62nd and 68th minutes.

At that point, Luton drew level with the home team at 14-14, and the momentum had swung their way, up until the 76th minute when Chingford’s George Woodroofe was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Chris Davis. As both sides battled it out in the dying stages, Luton thought they had won with Wright going over.

However, moments later, Chingford were awarded a penalty after a series of fouls from Luton that Boughtwood made no mistake from, and that ended the contest 17-14 in favour of the hosts.

Match Reporter
Nigel Mustapha