Midlands 2 East (S): Oakham 21 - 6 Luton

Luton momentarily found themselves in the lead with a penalty kick within the first eight minutes which was scored by Rik Hobbs. However it was not going to be a good afternoon for Luton’s top points scorer. The flyhalf would miss five further kicks.

With their hosts' dominating play deep in Luton's half, the league leaders ended the first half 15-3 in arrears with Oakham scoring two tries and a conversion kick.

An already weakened Newlands side suffered a major setback as Gun Banlusin had to come off at the end of the first half with a shoulder injury.

The visitors added 3 points at the start of the second half as Aidan Kenny, taking over kicking duty from Hobbs, slotted a penalty.

Under pressure Luton gave away penalties, and Oakham slotted the ball twice between the league leaders posts as the game slipped away from the them.

The second half was incident-filled after a passionate display from Oakham who kept pushing Luton back towards their own line. First hooker Shepherd received a second yellow card for pushing a player then fullback Hamm also saw yellow for not retiring ten metres while the home side were taking a penalty close the Luton line.

Luton's injury woes continued when Hamm was involved in a heavy head-on-tackle, which saw him knocked out momentarily.

Coach Alston didn’t hide his disappointment as he saw his side’s lead in the division cut to a solitary point. He said: "Oakham played a good game and we didn’t take our chances.

"We coughed up the ball too many times which was quite disappointing.

"Unfortunately Rik Hobbs didn't kick his kicks, we left 15 points out there which perhaps would have helped."

Luton will hope to return to winning ways on Saturday as they entertain mid-table Old Laurentians.

Match Reporter
Fabian Solomon