Sat 23 Oct 2021
Saturday 23rd October 2021
London League 3 North West
Welwyn RFC 29-40 Hendon RFC
Hendon earn the bonus point win after scoring four tries in the opening 20 minutes and then another two.
Hendon were at their best in the first period of play as Welwyn, previously in London League 2 ,came up against Hendon, the promoted Club to London 3, for the first time in over 20 years.
It was Will Theaker to score first after 3 minutes as Rob Casey made an inside break for Theaker to finish 0-5. Just two minutes later, Casey intercepted a poor Welwyn pass to put backrow forward Conor Bowler over to score Hendon’s second try for Jack Ryan to convert 0-12.
It was winger Chris Kiyingi who intercepted in midfield to create the next score to pass to Robby Burrell who crashed through several defenders for his try, again converted by Ryan 0-19.
Burrell claimed the next score and the bonus point on 20 minutes from a scrum on the Hendon 10m line following an outstanding backline move out to winger Theaker returning infield to Casey to release Burrell in for his 2nd converted by Ryan 0-26.
Hendon’s confidence was at full blast as the forwards lead by Rossa Dooley pushed again into the Welwyn half resulting in an offside penalty which, returning from injury, Dragos Ciocan took a quick tap on the Welwyn 22 to score another Ryan converted try as Hendon went 0-33 ahead. Just before the interval Welwyn took advantage after a Hendon injury and scored a well worked try in the corner 5-33.
At the start of the second half, it was Kiyingi in the first minute of play after Dooley claimed a line out ball to scrum half Ross Williams to release Casey with Kiyingi taking the ball through the defence to score with Ryan completing the conversion taking the score to 5 points to 40.
Then Hendon were hit by a series of injuries which saw three players taken off for assessment for head injury; first was Burrell followed by Tom Mathias then Williams, and as a precaution, although Hendon had used all replacements with players now out of position and a depleted backline they all were required to stay on the touchline.
This allowed Welwyn to take advantage with two scores in quick succession taking the score to 17 points to 40. Worse was to come for Hendon when 2nd row Jake Dunn sustained an arm injury and was off the field for treatment. Hendon, with now only 14 players on the park, faced a rejuvenated home outfit for the next 15 minutes until a patched up Dunne returned only for Hendon to lose another player for a technical penalty and yellow card for 10 minutes.
Hendon now had to defend their line and conceded a number of penalties resulting in Welwyn crossing twice more to bring the score back to 29-40.
Back to full strength for the last quarter Hendon could only defend and finish with a well-earned victory as two further players stayed on the park whilst nursing injuries with much work for Gabbie, the Hendon Physio to take care of after the match!
Director of Rugby after the match said "it was great to see that all the effort the coaching team and the players have put into developing a solid platform enabled the whole team to play in that first half an outstanding off-loading fast flowing attacking game, which brought rich rewards. The injuries are mounting up but the whole squad's commitment I am sure will see us through."
