A game of two halves.

A frustrating morning was suffered with players suddenly not available, moving playing locations at the very last minute, the pitch being unplayable, then being attended to for an extended period, leading to a very delayed start and a reduced playing time, which all led to a fractured and poor warm-up. The first half was a culmination of all of this and followed suit, with bad decision making, poor handling, a high penalty count and Hackney getting on the front foot by having their tails up and leading 12 - 5 at half time.

The half time talk was on the right side of an attitude adjustment and when the half started, things changed for the better almost immediately. Four tries in 24 minutes, three of which were converted, damaged any impetus Hackney had generated, although they put up a good fight to score another try, which came as the result of what was deemed to be a tip tackle. Another try killed off the game, together with some strong defensive sets and pressured plays from smart kicking prevented Hackney getting anything out to the game.
Continue to build…