London 1 North: Luton v Colchester

But what a difference a week makes. Last week humiliated at Ruislip this week manning up to second place Colchester. Although the visitors ran out comfortable winning in the end, Luton made it anything but comfortable for them on the pitch.

Luton lost by 8 tries to 3 but won over a huge number of fans with their performance. To a man the commitment shown through out the game was at a level rarely seen this season. Although individual man-of-the-match performances came from fly half Harry Alston and No 8 Callum Strachan the whole team showed a steely determination and cohesion that will raise hopes of staying in the league at the end of the season.

Although Luton went to the break at HT down 4 tries to one, they had competed through out. Never more so than when winning a lineout in the Colchester 25 and forming a rolling maul to send over No 8 Strachan.

Inspired by capt for the day Luke Spellen they carried their form into the second half with further tries from Matt Yang, another impressive rolling maul and one for Tom Winch after some neat interplay in the backs.

However Colchester showed their promotion chasing credentials and ran in a further 4 tries to take a bonus point win.

After the match team manager Steve Taffy Evans said;"I couldn’t be more proud of the team today. We knew it was going to be a hard day at the office against an impressive team like Colchester, but the boys were determined to fight to the last in front of our home support.

"On the pitch every single member of the team showed determination and tenacity. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can build on this in the coming weeks."

There may be a mountain to climb to stay in this division but yesterday Luton showed that they have heart to climb it.

Ian Nancollas
Match Reporter