Energised South fall to clinical Luton at home

South entertained high flying Luton today at a murky Welford Road in their latest National Division 3 Midlands game. They gave a season’s debut to centre Henry King and welcomed back Nick Griffin from injury to take his place on the wing.

Traditionally South have been slow out of the blocks in most games this season, but against Luton they tore into the opposition from the word go.
Constantly they battered the Luton line, being held up on a number of occasions by the dogged Luton defence. South played some great rugby with Mark Lord kicking two penalties in this period. They could and should, however, have scored tries, but it wasn’t to be due to a combination of the wrong decision making and poor execution with Luton’s line at their mercy.
South were made to suffer immediately after as a result of Stu Bale’s harsh yellow card and two break out tries by the visitors as the complexion of the game changed. Lord hit a post with is third penalty attempt, but Luton began to put together some fine moves which reflected their new found superiority. From a position of strength, but missed opportunities, South went in at the break 12 points to 6 down.

From a first half position where the visitors had hardly set foot in the South half, Luton put together a sweeping move with backs and forwards combining to score a good try by their tight head prop which was converted.
South responded with the rolling maul making an appearance, causing havoc in the Luton defence. From the resultant scrum Chris Bale broke from the base of the scrum to surge over. Lord converted to put South back in the game. The game ebbed and flowed from that point on with South generally going forward in an attempt to take the game. Good drives from the back row of Mike March, Bale and Chris Mark and incisive running from Rich Lang and Nick Griffin kept the pressure on the visitors. They, however, extended their lead by adding a penalty and a drop goal in the closing stages.

The final score flattered the visitors as South more than matched their opponents for the majority of the hardfought game. Kris McFedries and Stu Bale claimed tries that were disallowed by referee Mr Oliver. He did, however, penalise a crooked feed at a scrum which is virtually unheard of in present day rugby!

Team: Devaney, Griffin, Lang, King (Harris), Jordan, Lord, McFedries, C Bale, C Mark, March©, S Bale, Antill, Bayley, Green, Jones (R Mark).

Man of the Match: Chris Bale.