Luton Rugby pay the penalty at Diss

Luton Rugby suffered defeat to Diss in their London One North clash on Saturday, with four penalties enough to seal victory for the hosts on a cold and wet afternoon in Norfolk, writes Stephen Richards.

It was a frustrating day at the office for Luton who struggled to get any rhythm going against a very stubborn Diss back row.

Aside from Aiden Kenny’s missed a penalty just two minutes in, the game was uneventful early on.

Luton applied most of the pressure but were finding the Diss backline difficult to break down.

That was until 28 minutes when Michael Weston found a way through to open the scoring with a try, taking advantage of the fact that Diss had two players sin-binned at the time. Kenny missed his conversion though, leaving Luton 5-0 up.

Diss opened their account with their first penalty from Chris Beaird on 33 minutes, leaving Luton with a slender advantage of 5-3 which they held until half-time.

The visitors looked more purposeful in their play but Diss were defending resiliently to keep themselves in with a chance of getting a result.

Luton conceded another penalty just three minutes into the second period which Beaird kicked again to put Diss 6-5 ahead.

That score remained until Beaird added two more penalties in the final three minutes to secure the 12-5 win.

Director of rugby Paul Allen said: “My criticism of late has been we concede too many tries so without doubt our defence was immense. I’m not sure they looked like scoring a try but they took their kicks and deserved the win.

“We focused on our defence and seem to forget our game is about playing in the right areas and moving the ball. We lacked composure in our back line.”

Luton are without a League game this weekend.

Luton: Pacey, Irvine, Blinkhorn, Elston, Nelly, Weston (T), Harris, Kay, Wilmore, Affleck, Hobbs, Ellis, Kelly, Edwards, Kenny. Replacements: Brennan, Duffy, Mahendran. Tries: Weston

Diss: Richards, Craven, Bray, Abercombie, Deacon, Fuller, Thomas, Laurie, Burroughs, Seward, West, Peacock, Harding, Wilby, Beaird.

Replacements: Hall, Farrer, Chartier.

Penalties: Beaird (4).