Canterbury 24 (Tries: De Kock, Hinkins. Con: Reilly. Pens: Reilly 4.). 

Staines 7 (Try: A Van Zyl. Con: Collins.). 

Report courtesy of Canterbury RFC.

Canterbury had to pass a test of temperament as much as skill in this niggling encounter and in the end they proved superior on both counts. Holding their discipline admirably in the face of sporadic off-the-ball aggravation they took the initiative in the third quarter and put Staines away with two quick and contrasting tries. First, a driving maul saw skipper Chris Hinkins apply the finishing touch five minutes into the second half. A piece of Gert De Kock magic then rammed home the message to the visitors after they made a hash of the restart. Led by former international Chris Sheasby, still a dominant force in the twilight of his playing days, Staines made few friends on this showing and there was a certain inevitability about the red card shown to Ric Van Zyl late in the game. The centre had already attracted the yellow variety in the first half but it was puzzling to see what the Middlesex side hoped to gain by their peevishness. Despite some scrummaging wobbles they had a solid enough base to work from, with an efficient lineout and Sheasby providing a focal point in the loose play. However, their attempts to slow city club possession proved costly, punished by three James Reilly penalty goals, and they got little change out of a Canterbury pack where a hard working back row were prominent and prop Dave Weston in exuberant form. They also lacked penetration against the meanest defence in London Division One and, apart from one piece of carelessness which allowed Staines a first half try, Canterbury handled them comfortably. When a city club clearance, not for the first time, missed touch they compounded the problem by failing to deal with Sheasby's kick ahead. The visitors made them pay by driving prop Andi Van Zyl over for a score which Huw Collins converted. On a bitterly cold afternoon handling mistakes were excusable and probably cost Canterbury a try just before the break when the city club led 9-7.

There was nothing wrong with Miles Littlechild's hands, however, when he stole the second half restart kick from under Staines' noses and was hauled down a metre from the goal line. In their eagerness Canterbury conceded a penalty which got the visitors off the hook, but not for long. A kick ahead down the right flank established a prime attacking position and soon Hinkins was claiming the try Staines over-clubbed their restart and when the ball ran dead conceded a mid-field scrum. From there full back De Kock warmed his shivering extremities, and those of the crowd, by taking scrum half Eoin Stewart's short pass and spearing away on a 50 metre dash to the posts leaving Reilly a simple conversion. Reilly's penalty goal in the 54th minute, after Staines had talked out of turn, finally buried resistance and the game meandered to a low key conclusion, notable for Van Zyl's sending off and marred by a late injury to Jamie Forsyth.

Haywards Heath 25 (Tries: Otuhouma, D Morath, Redmayne, Grey. Con: Ashton. Pen: Morath ). 

Bishop’s Stortford 24 (Tries: Paget, Colenso, Budworth. Cons: Coleman 3. Pen: Coleman.). 

Important win for Haywards Heath as they are now virtually safe from relegation on 17 points after this narrow one point win over Bishop’s Stortford.

Two first half tries from forwards James Grey and Jamie Redmayne and a conversion from Dan Morath gave the home side a 12-0 lead at the break.

The first were first to score in the second half with No 8 Jarrett Budworth going over after 44 minutes and Tom Coleman converted.

Six minutes later the home side got their third try with scrum half Morath touching down. Two tries by the hour mark saw the match turn with the visitors taking the lead after flanker Alex Colenso and centre James Paget touched down and Coleman converted them both to make it 21-17 to the visitors.

HH regained the lead on 62 minutes with a try from right wing Leiataua Otuhouma for 22-21.

Coleman kicked the visitors back in front with a 73^rd minute penalty goal before Morath won the game for the home side on 80 minutes with a penalty goal.        

Old Colfeians 5 (Try: Tunnicliff.). 

Ealing 44 (Tries: Ejikeme 2, O’Sullivan, Hodson, Essien. Cons: Ward 4. Pens: Ward 2.). 

Ealing consolidate forth spot with this comprehensive win over Old Colfeians who find themselves nine points from safety with only three games remaining.   

Ealing were ahead in the third minute with a Ben Ward penalty goal and it was 8-0 after 12 minutes after hooker Scott Hodson touched down.

Ward added a second penalty and with flanker David Essien touching down on 20 minutes and Ward converting they were 18-0 ahead, that though was the final score of the first half.

In the second half two tries in the opening 10 minutes killed off the game as centre Kene Ejikeme and wing Eoghan O’Sullivan touched down as they stretched their lead to 30-0.

In the final quarter they added two more tries with Ejikeme completing a double whilst OC finally made it across the visitors try line with No 8 Tim Tunnicliff scoring a consolation try.

Richmond 99 (Tries: Tennuci 6, Connellan 3, Rahmanzadeh-Asl.2, Hart, Whitfield, Farmer, Ault. Cons: Hart 12.). 

Tabard 0 (). 

Tabards nightmare season continued on Saturday as, despite a promising start, they finally succumbed to a powerful Richmond side by 99 points to 0.

For the first fifteen minutes nobody could have predicted the final outcome of this game as Tabard took the game to their opponents and besieged their try line with good thrusting runs from the three-quarters and hard driving from the forwards, inspired by flankers Mike Hyde and Jurie de Wet.   Then, Richmond penetrated to near the Tabard line and from a line out a powerful drive gave them their first score, touched down by hooker Whitfield and converted by full back Hart.

Richmond then ran in two further tries, from stand off Connellan and Hart and Tabards early spirit began to show weaknesses against the powerful Richmond threequarters.  Although Tabard rallied, Richmond, second in the table and hoping for promotion, again found holes in the Tabard defence and further scores took the half time score to 33 points to nil against Tabard.

In the second half Richmond had a quick burst of scoring and quickly went 52 points ahead but Tabard refused to buckle comprehensively and stout resistance and running from Hyde, centre Hayden Buchholz and fullback Paul Gibson kept some spirit in the game but Richmond were far too strong and were able to keep the score running along until their final try, deep in injury time brought up the final score of 99 points to nil, with Richmond’s wing, Tennuci, scoring six tries.

Worthing 22 (Tries: Storer, McGowan, Williamson. Cons: Taylor 2. Pen: Taylor.). 

Barnes 8 (Try: Archer. Pen: Farmer.). 

Worthing maintain fifth place over Barnes who would have overtaken them of they had managed to pull off an away win.

Paul Farmer put the visitors ahead with a 3^rd minute penalty goal in what was the only score of the first half.

Early in the second half the home full back levelled the game with a penalty goal.

It was not till the 62^nd minute that Worthing went ahead for the first time with second row Charlie McGowan going over and Taylor converted to make it 10-3. Five minutes later and right wing Tom Archer touched down for Barnes to get them back within two of the home side.

Two tries in the final 10 minutes saw Worthing home as first prop Ryan Storer went in and then flanker Bevan Williamson got the third home try to seal the win.    

Old Albanians 23 (Tries: Osman, Panting, Girven. Con: Gregg. Pen: Gregg. DG: Gregg. ). 

London Scottish 27 (Tries: Baker, Bruce, Byford, Janke, Perkins. Con: Williams.).