London 3 North/West 18 th February 2017

Despite a fantastic opening quarter, Cheshunt were put to the sword in the second half and Hitchin

completely dominated possession and territory, to run out comfortable winners and re-take their

position in the top half of the table, pushing Cheshunt down to 7 th .

Neither side were able to create very much in the opening minutes, until Sam Rule broke through a

tackle 30 metres out, he quickly raced into the 22 and Connor Pearce took the ball closer to the line,

quick ball along the line allowed Reece Shoobridge to join in from fullback and cross for the opening

try after 9 minutes.

Just 3 minutes later they were in again, a penalty was kicked up the line, lineout ball fed to fly half

Bobby Bolton who sent a long pass across the pitch, Shoobridge again was the recipient and he

touched down for his brace, this time converted by Louis Mulholland.

Enjoying the breeze on their backs Cheshunt were keen to add to their total and when a loose pass

found Scott Drew, he burst through the middle, again Pearce was on hand to get close to the line

and Mulholland finished it off when he picked and dived over from the maul, he also converted to

open the gap to 0-19 after just 24 minutes.

Incredibly, that concluded the scoring for the visitors, Hitchin responded immediately when they

took a quick tap just after the re-start to narrow the gap to 12 points, then had another a few

minutes later when Cheshunt failed to clear their lines and after 30 minutes the gap had narrowed

further to 12-19.

Neither side offered very much in the final 10 minutes of the half, but Cheshunt knew they would

have difficulty hanging on to a slender lead, as the breeze had steadily increased during the

afternoon.

The home side were soon level with a converted try at the start of the second period, then added

their fourth and bonus point try after a sustained effort in the 22. It was a lead they never looked

like surrendering as they were dominating all aspects of play. They had control of the set piece, they

were using their big forwards to smash the ball up the middle and when the defensive line was not

aligned, they quickly exploited it with ball to the backs.

Cheshunt were a little unlucky for play to be stopped, they had finally worked an overlap, but a head

injury to a Hitchin forward called play back and when they were able to apply some pressure in the

Hitchin 22 a pass was intercepted close to the line, which looked offside, the recipient running the

length of the pitch to add another try, in what was mostly one way traffic.

The home side ran in 5 second half tries to push the score out to 43-19. It doesn’t get any easier for

the Green and Whites, they will enjoy a week off next week, but then they visit undefeated Hackney

who seem to be marching relentlessly to the title.