Herts/Middlesex One: Thamesians 8 Hendon 57

Hendon cantered to 57-8 success away to Thamesians on their latest game in Herts/Middlesex One.

Thamesians looked difficult opposition from the start and were rewarded with an early penalty after 10 minutes to give them a three-point lead.

Hendon soon responded from a tap-and-go midfield penalty by Billy Burrell with Cosy Mutuma carrying to the Thamesians 22 before feeding Donal O’Sullivan, who crashed through the defence to score with Cian Hynes converting to make it 7-3.

Thamesians’ forwards then got the upper hand and set up a maul to the Hendon whitewash to claw back the lead with a try of their own out wide 8-7.

Approaching half-time, Harry Charles set up a carry from midfield to the Thamesians 22 before passing to Hynes who scored out wide as Hendon led 12-8 at the break.

Momentum changed in the second half with an early try from wing Adam Johnson after Rob Casey made a break from a Thamesians defensive kick.

The next move after 50 minutes was a complete team effort that started with Rossa Dooley winning a Thamesians lineout,

That set up a rolling maul with the backline coming into play and fullback Hynes taking the ball to score, but the referee adjudged the ball was held up;

From the resulting scrum, O’Sullivan picked up and charged over for his second try to to make it 22-8.

Five minutes later, Hendon’s bonus point try was scored by fly-half Casey after a superb dummy move wrong-footed two defenders to score with Hynes converting.

Hendon were now completely in control with the next move into Thamesians territory resulting in O’Sullivan rounding out his hat-trick with Hynes converting.

It now seemed any move was possible as Charles collected from the restart on the Hendon 22, put his foot down and avoided several tackles to score a 60-metre which was converted.

To their credit, Thamesians still wanted to push the Hendon defence, but hard tackling by backs Toby Ikwueke, John McCarthy and Tom Mathias stopped them short.

In the closing moments, Hendon were awarded a five-metre penalty which Hynes took quickly before passing for O’Sullivan to score his fourth try.

The last play of the game saw another backline move which was finished off Rob Page, with Hynes again converting.