A comfortable 35-7 victory suggests Welwyn enjoyed an easy game, but this was by no means the case as their pack head to step up to the plate a number of times against determined Datchworth opponents.

The match began with a minute’s silence in memory of Datchworth stalwart Jim Fookes, who died at the age of 90 at the end of last month.

Datchworth started on the front foot and spent the first ten minutes in the opposition half as Welwyn saw very little of the ball.

They held firm though, and when they were eventually able to get the ball they pushed up to Datchworth’s 22, winning a penalty that they kicked into the corner. From the resulting lineout they had a number of attempts to breach the defence before Jake Riley crashed over for a try which Kai Wells converted.

Datchworth’s pack held up well against Welwyn throughout the game, meaning it was the turn of the backs to impress. They produced some exciting handling moves with great offloads and excellent support play and it was from one of these that Welwyn took the ball almost the length of the pitch. The referee awarded a scrum to them and from a solid pack Oli Brady went over to score and Wells converted to extend the lead to 14-0.

Datchworth fought back towards the end of the first half and their persistence was rewarded when they were awarded a penalty that they kicked into the corner. They won the lineout and after a couple of attempts, managed to cross the line for a converted score to make it 14-7 at the break.

Welwyn’s advantage was soon back to 14 points when they were awarded a penalty try after some more exciting free running rugby was illegally bought to a halt. That also resulted in the first of three yellow cards - two for Datchworth and one for their opponents - in the second period.

Welwyn took advantage of their extra player and continued to play an expansive game, with Fin Sutherland running an exquisite line to break the defence and score under the posts which Wells converted.

With the try bonus point in the bag, the game continued to ebb and flow with Welwyn looking good in both attack and defence, at one point holding Datchworth up over the line to prevent a score.

In the last ten minutes there were two yellow cards for high tackles, one for each side, but the referee deemed that the Datchworth offender was the same player who he had given a yellow card earlier in the game and so that was upgraded to a red.

Welwyn had the last word with another excellent line break from Sutherland who was tackled in the 22 but managed to offload to Wells, who scored under the posts and duly converted his own try.