Dark days for Luton RFC as they concede 11 tries

Against one of the sides Luton had to defeat if they were to stand any chance of staying up this term, the visitors had begun the brighter.

They made some good ground and scored the first try in the fifth minute after David Hamm’s high punt was fumbled, allowing him to gather and crash over.

Rick Hobbs added the extras, but the hosts were soon level as they drove over from a maul, Stuart Pearham converting to make it 7-7.

Ruislip were ahead with a try after 13 minutes, and then straight from the kick off, Seremaia Malawakula ran three quarters of the pitch to win a five metre scrum for his side.

Tom Garner was yellow carded for deliberate offside, meaning Luton were a prop down and the scrum was therefore weak, allowing Jonathan Fieldhouse to cross, Pearham converting.

Luton had another lifeline on 22 minutes as Casimir Abaka pounced on a free ball following a bad pass and kicked it over the line for Hamm to score a try, as Luton trailed 19-12.

That was as good as it got for the Newlands Road side though as Ruislip extended their lead when Daniel Walton went over.

A ruthless Ruislip then scored from almost every attack as they managed another two tries before the break to lead 38-12.

After the interval, it took the hosts a mere two minutes to increase their advantage as Pearham sprinted over and added the conversion.

Luton managed to hang in for another 12 minutes until Joshua Horne-Thompson, who had been dangerous all game down the wing, found Daniel Walton who touched down again with Pearham’s boot doing the rest.

Ruislip kept attacking in an attempt to completely humiliate their opponents as Conor Mullan played two exquisite kicks to assist two tries, one to Fieldhouse and another to Antonio Trofa.

The final try of the day was scored by Horne-Thompson as he sprinted down the wing with ease to make it 69-12.

Luton manager Dicky Jones said: “There are very few positives to take away; the club is in a very dark place at the moment.

“We took massive hits at the start of the season that we weren’t able to fix with fresh talent and as a result, we’ve lost 22 players and brought in seven or eight.

“We’ll continue to push until it’s mathematically impossible but the drop is ever-looming as this was one of the games that we had marked for a potential win. It’s very challenging when you haven’t got a squad to pick.”

Luton host Old Priorians this weekend.