Hackney 48 – 15 Datchworth

Datchworth travelled to Hackney on Saturday in high spirits following the victory against Welwyn last week, though it was not to be as newly promoted Hackney demonstrated they’d be a force to reckon with in London West 3.

Hackney came flying out of the blocks, almost scoring from kick off, only some impressive scramble defence from Datchworth saving them. Datchworth held of repeated Hackney attacks with some strong team defending, until they were finally breached in the 15th minute. Hackney quickly shifted the ball down the line from a line out (an area they were dominant in throughout), and their inside centre scored under the posts, this was then converted. They scored their second try around the 26th minute, finding space out wide and soon followed up with a third try, leaving Datchworth 19-0 down. On the stroke of half time however they hit back, winning a penalty at the scrum, no. 8 John Scarratt took a quick tap penalty and bundled over, 19-5 at half time.

Datchworth needed to be the first on the scoresheet in the second half, unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Hackney scored two quick tries after half time, both coming through an impressive back-row unit. Datchworth followed up with a try of their own, driving over from a scrum, 31-10. There was still time for Hackney to find three more tries before Datchworth scored the last try of the game – an impressive break from Centre Steve Gregory saw him break 3 tackles, before squaring up the full back and offloading for James Wood to score next to the posts, unfortunately Tom Wood couldn’t add the extras.

Missing a large array of players, there were plenty of positives to take out of the game for the men in green and they’ll look to build on that next week away to Grasshoppers in the national cup.