Ealing Trailfinders 1871 maintained their perfect record of 5 points from each game in Counties 2 Herts and Middlesex and continue to top the table after a feisty encounter with St Albans, who started the day in third place, having lost just once.

In bright conditions, the game started at high intensity, with the visitors clearly fired up and fielding a heavyweight pack. While Ealing had opened the scoring early in all their previous matches, it soon became clear that this would be their sternest test to date, with a number of penalties conceded in the opening exchanges. After 13 minutes of attrition, an Ealing kick out of defence was returned with interest for a 50-22. From the ensuing line-out, St Albans drove over for an unconverted try. A few minutes later a strong run by inside centre Josh Steadman pushed play into the visitors’ 22. Ealing fly-half Harry Vidler charged down an attempted clearance kick and was first to reach the loose ball over the try line. The conversion attempt from the left-hand touch line was missed.

The game continued in the same vein, with St Albans looking to kick rather than run and involve their heavier forwards as much as possible, while Ealing aimed to use the pace of their back line whenever the opportunity arose. With 24 minutes on the clock, the 1871 forwards stole the ball from a powerful St Albans maul and it was moved quickly along the three-quarter line. Outside centre Max Muirhead took a pass at pace and knocked would-be tacklers out of the way with a barnstorming run to put his side 10-5 ahead. Just a minute later the lead was made more comfortable by wing Ben Parkinson touching down wide on the left, after several well-timed offloads in midfield. The conversion was again missed, in a stiffening breeze.  St Albans exerted pressure through their big forwards, but were kept at bay at the cost of a string of penalties. Eventually the referee lost patience and showed a yellow card to Muirhead with 2 minutes of the first period remaining. In the last play of the half, the visitors reduced the arrears to 15-10 with a try in the right-hand corner through their forwards.

Despite being a man down, 1871 began the second half brightly. Five minutes into the second period, strong carries by Luke Parry and Kavan Fitzpatrick led to a penalty, taken as a scrum. Possession was initially scruffy, but alert scrum half Kyle Beck eventually dived over under the posts for his eleventh try of the season, Vidler adding the extras to increase the lead to 22-10. With 50 minutes gone St Albans, who had lost a prop early in the game, lost another, leading to uncontested scrums for the rest of the game. Ealing came close to adding another try through man of the match loose-head prop Dan O’Mahony, and soon afterwards increased their lead to 27-10 when a drop-out from the try line allowed right wing Louis Walker to charge through  the defence and stretch to the line for his fourth try in two weeks.  However, a try wide on the left, well converted, brought the score back to 27-17 and gave the visitors renewed belief that they could pull off a win.