Ealing Trailfinders 1871 made light of the absence through injuries suffered on Thursday evening of captain Lewis Steadman and vice-captain Gereint Price to rack up 16 tries, including 10 at the rate of one every 4 minutes in the second half, and 15 conversions from the boot of Harry Vidler and break the club record set away to Old Streetonians last season. Despite being outplayed by a fit and well-prepared team eager to get off to a flying start in the new Counties 1 Middlesex league, UCS never gave up, and 1871 had to work to create each score.

Ealing started brightly and confidently against league newcomers UCS, pushing play immediately down to the visitors’ 22 and kicking a penalty to touch. From a clean line-out take hooker Luke Parry peeled off to open the scoring. UCS enjoyed some territory and possession, forcing 1871 to put their defence sets into practice, before a turnover put Ealing back into attack mode. It took until the 13th minute mark for a second score to arrive. From another turnover fly half Harry Vidler sent a superb 50-22 down to the left-corner, and from a clean line-out take No 8 Dave Francis received a short pass from inside centre Ryan Conyard and crashed over under the posts.  Conyard turned scorer 5 minutes later, followed on the score sheet 3 minutes later by wing Jack Hobbs, popping up in the centre to take a short pass from Josh Steadman. With the four-try bonus secured there was then a pause in the scoring before Carlos Duarte on the right wing finished a sustained attack featuring powerful runs by props Leo Codrington-Lambert and Akeem Eubank-Anderson.  The first period ended with Josh Steadman, playing at outside centre in the absence of his brother Lewis, dancing around an attempted tackle to leave the interval score at 42-0.

Ealing made the most of the warm and sunny conditions conducive to running rugby and strong scrum and line-out platforms to stretch the lead immediately after the restart. Duarte, having moved out to the wing, scored his second of the day thanks to a powerful set scrum taken instead of a penalty kick, Vidler missing the conversion for the only time in the match. The second of what were to prove to be four tries in the opening 11 minutes of the second half came courtesy of a barnstorming run to the line by Codrington-Lambert, followed by a second for Parry and a finish under the posts by right wing Harrison Slater from a well-weighted cross-field kick. Steadman crossed for a second time, and full-back Alex Le Bouedec then capped an assured performance at full back on his league debut with a finish under the posts. Conyard added another, and Steadman completed his hat-trick to bring up the century with 10 minutes still to play. The final score of the day marked Duarte’s own hat-trick. In the last move of the match UCS attacked strongly down the left-hand touch line and looked odds-on to score but Vidler came flying across field to force the left wing into touch inches from the try line.

Coach Phil Smith was understandably pleased to see the hard work in training reflected in a sparkling performance on the field and the maintenance of focus throughout the 80 minutes despite the scoreline. Man of the match was Conyard, who had plenty of work to do in defence as well as contributing tries and assists.

A sterner challenge awaits on 13 September, with the visit of Chiswick, followed by a cup away trip to Hemel Hempstead and a crucial game away to Finchley at the beginning of October.