A DOMINANT performance saw Hackney come out on top against Old Priorians.

The first half wasn’t Hackney’s best, with tries conceded from individual mistakes.

A ball originally knocked on by James Rowbottom was hacked forward and pounced on for a try.

The tries for the home side firstly saw John Tully force his way over from five yards out, just managing to stay on the pitch despite the attentions of four defenders trying their best to get him into touch.

An early offside meant Old Priorians found themselves, not for the last time, down in terms of numbers.

A second try of the half came from Alex O’Hara who danced through the cover and went under the posts.

The second half started quickly with James Davis making use of space out wide to round his man with the final try arriving courtesy of Alex O’Hara as again he nipped under the posts.

A second yellow for Old Priorians was dished out for dumping Curtis on his neck, with play unfortunately called back when Charlie Davis was away under the posts, testament to a pass. Soon after, the visitors’ picked up their third yellow of the match, and found themselves down to 13 men after they killed the ball at a ruck.

Dom Beno was sent to the bin for kicking the opposition but the Hackney defence remained resolute however, with Mike Harris making an

impact, before Beno returned to continue a great days work and arguably his best performance in a Hackney shirt.

Hackney: Beno, C Davis, Pilkington, Crockett, Tully, Bobin, Bowers, Chamberlain, Rooke, O’Hara, J Davis, Dawson, Hornyold-Strickland, Arif Saad, Rowbottom, Harris, Kurtis

Belsize Park 39 Hackney 7

A STRONG Belsize side dominated the game with Hackney’s second team beset by problems from the off.

Mauricio Ribeiro pulled his back during the warm up and Dave Huxley arrived only five minutes before kick-off.

But Belsize were a well-organised team with a young but talented backline and the first half belonged to Belsize, with the majority of territory, as they restricted Hackney to very little in attack with the home side giving them a mountain to climb in the second half if they were to get anything from the game.

Hackney did produce a spirited performance after the break, though, but were still outplayed on the wing with Sam Yauner making his competitive debut.

The second half was much more of a contest with numerous attacks on the Belsize line & solid defence in Hackney’s half. The opposition did score three times in this half, with two of the tries coming from the wing.

But at least Hackney were able to get on the scoreboard through Matthieu Arneguy after 57 minutes.

The visiting forwards’ continued to make some strong runs but small errors did plague their attacks. The final 15 minutes saw pressure on the Belsize line with the home side conceding numerous penalties.

The referee did penalise the hosts with four minutes to go but it was far too late to make and real difference.

Hackney: Toppon, Blair, Arneguy, Wilson, Travis, Walsham, Roberts, Huxley, Luke, Cox, Uzo, Blake, Watkins, Yauner, Owen.