Welwyn consolidated third place in London Three North west after a rampaging 57-0 home win over UCS Old Boys last Saturday.

On Saturday Welwyn 1st XV welcomed UCS to Hobbs Lane in London 3 North West. Welwyn were confident ahead of the game following an excellent week of training and Director of Rugby Ian Matthews was able to name a strong starting XV.

UCS began the game playing direct and physical style of Rugby. However, Welwyn’s fringe defence was on song and stopped UCS time and again. With route one closed off by the Welwyn pack UCS resorted to kicking and this gave Welwyn numerous counter attacking opportunities. Adam Harcourt, Ben Smith and Dan Ashcroft formed a strong back 3 unit who were able to counter attack effectively all game. Welwyn opened the scoring with a fantastic team try which started in their own half. Followed multiple phases of fast, direct attacking rugby Ash Maxwell, sporting an unmissable fuschia scrum hat picked a great line off Gareth Hughes to crash over under the posts.

The Welwyn forwards started to gain dominance in all areas of the game. This allowed the Welwyn backs to carve open the UCS defence on numerous occasions. With Hughes picking his passes and Grehan and Child picking great attacking lines Welwyn were on the front foot. Maxwell soon added his second as Welwyn converted the pressure into points. UCS continued to front up and work hard but Welwyn’s stood firm and UCS could not find the key to unlock the defence. Following another break up the pitch and strong work from Dan Ashcorft, good passing from Gillespie and Hughes allowed Picken to crash over from 1 yard out. Maxwell then rounded off a superb first half for Welwyn by completing his hat trick, picking another excellent line off a flat pass to crash over.

In the second half a combination of stubborn and proud defiance from UCS, a very heavy pitch and some intriguing refereeing decisions took some for the rhythm from the game. Welwyn continued to work hard and play with ambition. UCS enjoyed the bulk of possession but their forward runners were unable to penetrate the fast line speed and brutal tackling from the entire Welwyn team. Welwyn absorbed the pressure and punished UCS on the counter attack scoring 4 more tries, two for Wayne Child and one each for the Smith brothers. The game finished with the Welwyn pack destroying the UCS scrum and from the turnover Gillespie showed excellent speed and awareness to release Andy Smith who scored in the corner.

Director of Rugby Ian Matthews commented, “this was a fantastic team performance born out of hard work over the last month on the training ground. Although our results have been mixed our level of performance has been improving each week and I am particular proud of the lads for keeping UCS out for the entire game”.