London 1 North: Luton v Sudbury

Luton’s try was scored by Callum Strachan.

There was a lot of tension in the first half, from both sides, with two small fights breaking out between them. Despite all the pressure from the home squad, it was Sudbury who got the first points, a try from Chaplin. Luton had multiple chances but fortune wasn’t on their side this time, leaving them pointless in the first half.

The second half started off just as intense as the first one, although, Luton’s performance was “rewarded” by four penalty kicks to Sudbury. Luckily only two were converted by Summers.

Even though the Green and Red put great pressure on the visitors, it was Sudbury who scored two tries, getting close to taking the bonus point with them.

In answer, Strachan bought the ball over the try line, keeping his good habit, as he scored last weekend (against Diss) and the last time Luton faced Sudbury back in September.

Luton’s long history with injuries continued at this game as well, first Brogan Mckeown dropped out during warm up, then in the second half, within only 10 minutes gone, they lost both of their Toms, hooker Garner and flyhalf Mahendran due to injuries. They also had to play the last few minutes with 14 players as Shane Thomas came off as well.

First team manager Steve Evans highlighted the key differences between the two teams and in what ways his squad can improve before next week’s game against Ruislip.

He said:” The key differences today were the backs, that was very obvious. We dominated the forwards, which is fantastic and a strong positivity that we can take away. We weren’t quick enough in the backs, handling was poor and I think that was probably what cost us the game.

“[Before next week] We need to practise lineouts, we need to run some more lines and just figure out where our strengths are.

“All of the team really went for it today, it was completely different from last week. The standouts for me were the captain Ryan Staff, he was exceptional as he made a try-saving tackle which was crucial. Denzel Edwards was also absolutely fantastic, if it was down to me, he would be the man of the match.”

Luton travelling to Ruislip next week.

Orsi Zsuppan
Match Reporter