Luton RFC hammered by champions Bury St Edmunds

Luton crashed to their heaviest defeat of the season as they were hammered 59-0 at London One North leaders Bury St Edmunds at the weekend, writes Stephen Richards.

Paul Allen’s side went into the game in great form with seven consecutive league wins, but it took just 40 seconds for Bury to open the scoring as Matt Edison broke clear to go over and Will Martin converted for a 7-0 lead.

The response was positive from Luton but play had to be stopped after 10 minutes when Jack Elston’s challenge resulted in a sin-bin and an injury to Bury’s Ben Radmall.

Luton then conceded straight from the restart, this time Kenny Eggars going over and Martin converted again.

Two minutes later Martin scored a try of his own followed once again by a successful conversion to give Bury a 21-0 advantage with not even a quarter of an hour gone.

There were signs of encouragement to follow for Luton who finally managed some sustained pressure. Rik Hobbs went close to going over but was denied by some fantastic last-ditch defending.

It wasn’t long though before Bury’s Martin was at it again, finishing off a fine passing move to touch down again before converting to increase the lead to 28-0 on 31 minutes.

Bury remained on top in the second-half as Jamie Cook added another try on 44 minutes although this time he missed the conversion. Eggars scored his second try of the afternoon five minutes later with Martin converting via a post.

The full-back then helped himself to his second try and another conversion on 54 minutes.

Centre Tanimo Samoa scored on the hour mark and the rout was completed by Phil Gouldie in the final minute, Martin, ever-reliable, converting both resulting kicks.

Luton host Colchester this week, with director of rugby Paul Allen confident his side will bounce back, saying: “It’s been the same all season, the lads have a shocker, brush themselves down and turn it around, especially at home. We aim to finish on a high.”

Luton: Pacey, Spellen, Blinkhorn, Nelly, Staff, Weston, Elston, Kay, Wilmore, Hobbs, Davies, Kenny, Ellis, Edwards, Affleck. Subs:Irvine, Yang, Corrigan.