An ill-tempered game on a foul afternoon weather wise was lit up by an all-important victory for Welwyn at home to Finchley.

The 8-3 success had followed up a last-gasp loss on day one to St Albans but the home side had to do it the hard way after a red card for Andrew Le Baigue midway through the second half.

Mind you, the Hobbs Way-based rugby club also enjoyed periods with a numerical advantage after Finchley received four yellow cards.

The only score of the first half came during one of those spells, a dominant scrum 10 metres out ended with skipper Josh Milton crashing over to score for a 5-0 interval lead.

A strong start to the second half couldn't bring an elusive second try, the only change to the scoreboard a Chris Kemp penalty for the hosts.

That was before the sending off of Le Baigue and Finchley set up another grandstand finish with a penalty five minutes from time.

This time, however, the home team managed to see out the rest of the match without conceding and push them up to sixth in the London Three North West table.

Welwyn have another blank weekend to come with their league programme resuming away to Finsbury Park on October 16.

Datchworth meanwhile put in a far better performance than their opening two fixtures but still came away with nothing after a 23-5 loss at home to Ruislip in Division Two North West.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Welwyn Rugby Club's women got their season off to a great start.Welwyn Rugby Club's women got their season off to a great start. (Image: Welwyn Rugby Club)

Welwyn's women stormed to a wonderful success in their opening league game at Bishop's Stortford.

They had been promoted in their last full campaign and it looked like they never missed a beat with a 75-0 victory.

The start reflected the majority of the match with Daisy Parker scoring the opening try and captain Emma Waddup converting.

And by half-time the lead was up to 28-0 with the Welwyn side turning the screw even more in the second-half.

Abbie Picking led the way with five of her team's 11 tries while there were also scores from Hannah Lloyd, back from over a year out with injury, and Jemimah Orphanou.

Stortford kept battling and thought they were going to get a consolation score in the last play of the match until a superb cover tackle from Jordan Piercey denied them.