Luton sign off with away win at Romford

Luton came into the match on the back of an impressive victory against Ipswich in the previous round, at Newlands Road, whereas Romford were winless from their last five games.

The game commenced at a sedate pace, with both sets of teams happy to size each other up through scrums and winning line-outs.

The first points of the afternoon were recorded by Romford via a penalty through scrum half Jack MacVeigh in the 26th minute.

From then on, the game passed by rather swiftly, as the windy conditions made it almost impossible for kicking and swift passing. In the 39th minute however, the home side’s sustained period of dominance resulted in them grabbing the afternoon’s first try through fly half Reece Parr, after he intercepted a loose ball and made use of his speed. MacVeigh followed up with a conversion to make it 10-0 to Romford, going into the interval.

At the commencement of the second period, Luton came back fighting and their passing game was sharper and crisper, and tight-head prop Luke Spellen went over the line, before full-back Rick Hobbs followed up with a successful conversion to turn the game into a contest once again at 10-7.

However, Luton’s early momentum in the second half was halted when Romford were awarded another penalty due to an infringement by a Luton player, that MacVeigh put through the posts to give his side a 13-7 advantage.

Luton’s never-say-die attitude was in full swing again as Darren Moore and Chris Parr rang the changes, by bringing on Dwayne Duffy and Tyrone Ashton Tyrone quickly helped to set up a try for Chris Davis in the 54th minute, and Rick Hobbs followed up with a conversion to give Luton the lead for the first time in the encounter, 13-14.

In the 68th minute, Romford were awarded a penalty from which MacVeigh kicked narrowly wide. Sooner rather than later, Luton made sure of the points when in the 72nd minute; Rick Hobbs converted a penalty of his own to make it 13-17 to the visitors.

It remained that way until the final whistle as Luton end the campaign in 10th position and looking forward to the East Midlands Cup Final on Wed 29th at Goldington Road.

Following their victory skills coach Chris Parr said:

“We made very hard work of it. In saying that Romford is never an easy place to come, we all expected them to be competitive.

“While we respect that they are a tough outfit, I think we made hard work of things and didn’t really execute as well as we could have at times.”