Hackney side suffer first defeat of the season

Old Streetonians were given a harsh reality check about life in London Two on Saturday after they were easily beaten 30-22 by Enfield Ignations.

The Hackney outfit could not compete with the aggression and physicality of Enfield, failing to finish the opportunities that they did manage to create, but Head Coach David Bailey was upbeat after the game.

“We learnt a lot today,” he said.

“There’s a lot to work on, but that’s a beatable team.”

Indeed it was. Despite the visitors opening the scoring with a penalty, Street dominated the opening quarter of the game as Enfield struggled to cope with the hosts offloading game.

However only one try came from this initial period of dominance, McAndrew rounding his opposite number to touch down in the corner.

As Street kicked poorly, giving too much possession to Enfield, the visitors got back into the game as the half drew on.

Street had no answer to their powerful attacking around the ruck, and Enfield soon moved into a 20-13 lead at half time, Streets score coming from hooker Mackay escaping from the back of a driving maul from the well functioning line out.

Street tied up the scores after the break, with Downey, in his first game this season, finishing from 60m.

His smooth running lines will be a welcome addition to the Street back line. But Street could not eradicate the poor kicking or the ‘come and run at me’ passive defence, and Enfield continued to assert their physical dominance.

As Street tired, having spent large parts of the game defending, Enfield moved clear with two well finished tries of their own.

Missing out on the bonus point was particularly gauling for injured captain Nick Barham, who was watching from the sideline with a hamstring injury.

“That’s a team we are capable of beating really” he said.

“If we were fitter we could, and should, have been competing right to the end. As it was, we fell away, and conceded a pretty soft try at the end.

“Preventing that would have got us the losing bonus point.”

Old Streetonians: O’Shea, Mackay, McCarthy, Silverstone, Cooper (Fountain 60), Andrews, Purser, Webb, Georganas, Ingleby, Perry (Downey 40), Donegan, Goss, McAndrew, Massie, Webster.