Midlands 2 East (S): Olney16 - 8 Luton

Luton stay third in the Midlands 2 East (South) table with 50 points after 10 wins and
three defeats.

The home side dominated the early possession, and when the referee awarded them a
penalty they took advantage, the fly half played a lovely cross-field kick finding the
winger and Aiden Kenny couldn’t stop him from scoring. The scrum half missed the
conversion.

Rik Hobbs pulled it back to 5-3 with a penalty from 22 metres out that clipped the
inside of the post on the way over.

Olney’s scrum half then slotted home two pretty similar penalties from around the 22
to make it 11-3.

Luton closed the gap to three points just before the break as Tom Mahendren passed it
from the ruck to Bryon Odell, who played a short pass inside to Kenny, which created
a gap for the winger to exploit and score. Hobbs missed the difficult conversion on
the touchline from distance.

Olney dominated the game for the majority of the second period with the visitors not
even being able to get out of their own half.

Eventually, with about 10 minutes to go, Olney broke down the Luton defence after a
number of strong attacking phases within close range, Olney’s hooker dived over to
make it 16-8. The scrum half failed to convert.

Ryan Staff said afterwards: “Any loss is tough to take, but this one especially as we
would have ideally liked to have closed the gap.

“The conditions and surface played a huge part in the game today, fair play to Olney
they played the pitch and weather conditions better than we did.”

Luton missed out on their rest week due to the rearranged fixture at Olney and face
seventh placed Long Buckby at home next weekend, who they beat 40-0 earlier in the
season. Staff is hoping for a better outing and doesn’t think the squad will suffer from
tiredness.

The blindside flanker said: “No game is ever the same, however, we will be looking
for a huge performance this coming weekend in order to get our season back on track.

“I don’t think fatigue is going to play a part moving into next week due to the
excellent work that Hills Physical Developments team has been doing with us behind
the scenes.”

Joel Pattison
Match Reporter