Hackney Rugby were smashed on home turf by marauding Welwyn backs last Saturday as centre Francis Denny and wing Phil Grehan ran in four tries each for the visiting side.
Hackney started strongly, pressuring in the Welwyn half and exploiting some early, nervy passing from the visitor’s scrum-half, but were soon torn apart by the backs that went on to dominate the game.
After a territory kick and a line break, Phil Grehan exploited an overlap to dummy through the centres in the 22 and run under the posts to open the Welwyn account for the game in the sixth minute. Wing Dan Ashcroft converted the try, his first of a perfect record of eleven for the afternoon.
Three minutes later, Welwyn second-row Ashley Maxwell exploited some poor tackling on a physical run to take the score to 0-12 after nine minutes. Ashcroft converted again.
Welwyn’s advantage was already becoming clear at this point as their backs grew in confidence from kickoffs, running aggressive lines and taking advantage of an offload game after line breaks. Tries began to rack up in the backs as Grehan scored again and Francis Denny scored his first of four, following a great wide pass from his inside centre.
Hackney began a resurgence at this point in the first half, applying pressure from the kickoff to make their way up to the Welwyn 22. The forwards took matters into their own hands with a strong rolling maul before building phases.
Captain Will Bowers received a flat crash ball from the scrum half, twisting through the flyhalf’s channel to force his outstretched arm over the line for Hackney’s only try of the game, converted by Ed Clarke.
Hackney’s confidence grew, fighting their way back into the game as an Ed Clarke penalty took the score to 10-28, however, a home win was not to be.
Second-row Maxwell scored his second try of the game, receiving an offload on the five metre line and twisting through an errant Hackney tackle to take the score to 10-35, following another precision conversion from Ashcroft.
The first half drew to a close with high tackle call sin binning for Phil Grehan, controversial to the supporters on the visiting side, but it did not matter.
Hackney took no advantage of the extra man early in the second half as Welwyn went on to score 40 unanswered points.
Francis Denny scored three more tries (one, a blistering sprint down the wing, leaving the Hackney defence stranded for sheer pace), two more came from the returning Grehan and a lovely sidestepping run on the break earned place kicker Dan Ashcroft a try.
The final whistle blew with the final score 10-77, a result of excellent pace and lines from the Welwyn backs and poor first up tackles from Hackney.
Hackney RFC Head Coach Gareth Hatherley-Hurford said: “I think we’ve had a really good season so far, that performance just there wasn’t really justice to what we’ve been doing this season. It didn’t really demonstrate what Hackney’s about and for me as a coach, it gave me a lot of food for thought. It allowed me to think about what these boys need to be contenders for the title next year and while I’m not chuffed that we’ve lost by that much, but we can take things away for our tactics and structure.
“We looked at new systems and new structures last year and were rigorous with them in preseason and I think that gave us a really good standing for winning the league. That put us in this league.
“At this moment in time I think we need to hone in what we’ve got and look at the new players we have at the club. The loss of some really key players from last year, means the new ones need to get used to the way we play and I think that’ll help some of our go-forward next year.
“You never want to blame something or missing players. It’s not the reason we lost the game, we do have four or five players that would have been in that team today and would have been a massive difference, but it’s no excuse. The players that were out there today could have done the job, there were glimpses of it, they’ve showed that and I’m happy with that and we can work on that going forward.
“Strength in depth is a luxury at this level sometimes, so when you’ve got it you work on it and you do what you can with it. That will be the challenge ahead.”
Results summary
Hackney
Tries: Will Bowers (1)
Conversions: Ed Clarke (1)
Penalties: Ed Clarke (1)
Welwyn:
Tries: Francis Denny (4), Phil Grehan (4), Ashley Maxwell (2), Dan Ashcroft (1)
Conversions: Dan Ashcroft (11)
Sin Bin: Phil Grehan 37’
MA Newspaper Journalism student at City University currently covering the Hackney Wick area. Email all stories to LouisDore311@gmail.com