Hereford suffered their eighth league defeat of the season at Luton

Hereford went down to defeat at Luton in National Three Midlands while Malvern made progress in the North Midlands Cup.

A poor 15-minute spell at the start of the game by Hereford saw Luton scoring three tries.

Hereford woke up and dominated the last 20 minutes of the first half with hooker Gareth Miles crashing over.

Luton began the second half with former Northampton centre Matt Allen diving over from short range after seven minutes.

The Hereford forwards began to dominate the scrum, and were awarded a penalty try after 20 minutes after a collapsed scrum on the try line.

Luton received three yellow cards in the second half for killing the ball at rucks.

Our boys showed a lot of grit and skill out there, despite some of the worst refereeing I have ever seen Malvern director of rugby Dave Robins

Hereford spent the last quarter of the game in their opponents' 22, with Luton conceding 17 penalties in this period, however they could not break the line.

Malvern beat Whitchurch but had to go to extra-time to pull off a 26-16 win.

Tries from Dominic Reagan and James Southall had Malvern in front, but Whitchurch scored with a penalty in second-half injury time.

Southall then went over for a second try in extra-time to help Malvern seal the game.

Director of Rugby David Robins told BBC Hereford and Worcester he was delighted for the way his team bounced back after a league defeat at Luton.

He said: "Our boys showed a lot of grit and skill out there, despite some of the worst refereeing I have ever seen.

"Credit to both sides - they tried to play good rugby all afternoon and turned the game into a cup epic, with some real end to end stuff."

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