Off to a HML Flyer with 5 points.

A solid early season performance in which the forwards edged it up front against a larger pack and the backs put plenty of ball through the hands, resulted in a bonus pint win against a well organised and competitive Rhinos side on their first visit to Silver Leys having been promoted from Division 5 last season.

Honours were even after the opening exchanges but nerves were settled when Will Turner picked up from the base of a scrum inside the visitors 22 to score the opening try after 8 minutes and Sam Richardson added the extra 2 points with a tricky conversion from close to the touchline.

Rhinos came back at Stortford and were rewarded with a try from a short penalty which the home side were slow to defend. From the restart Stortford drove back into the visitors 22, where the forwards worked hard to force an error and it was Joshua Cilia who pounced on a loose ball to score the Blue’s second try, again converted. Wilkes added the third before Haringey again capitalised on some confusion in the Stortford defence, as the half concluded with the score 19-10.

Shortly after the restart James Allen added the bonus point try with a trademark run, in which he outstripped the defence and touched down under the posts. If Stortford thought they had the game won by then they were made to work hard in defence by Rhinos who eventually found a way through for their third try. When the Blues were awarded a penalty in front of the posts on 25 minutes, the 3 points were gratefully taken and Cilia rounded off an excellent debut performance for the club, (having recently joined from Saffron Waldon), by scoring a second try from short range, with just 2 minutes to play.

Given that this league game was scheduled so early in the season, this was a very encouraging performance from the B's with some aggressive forward play and excellent defending throughout. A great start to the season and hopefully more to come vs Grasshopers next weekend.

Team: Downing, Marsh, Simons, Cilia, Matthews, Dutta, Jones, Goodfellow, Turner, Townsend, Gleed, Neal, Abbott, Richardson, Woods, Hall, Gregory, Reynolds, Langan, Wilkes, Stevenson, Allen.