Match Report

  Hainault 74-6 Eastern

30/06/07 (Courtesy of Hainault Bulldogs)

 

Second placed Eastern Raiders were the visitors to top of the table Hainault Bulldogs at the weekend. The Bulldogs showed straight from the kick off that they meant business and in the Raiders first set of six they forced a mistake; some massive hits from Dave North and Ian Lovett forced a knock on and gave the Bulldogs an early chance to get some points. That chance was taken after two minutes when hooker Ray Lejerri took the ball from dummy half and danced his way through the Raiders defence to score under the posts. It wasn't long before the Bulldogs were on the scoresheet again when man of the match loose forward Graham Bailey scored the first of his two tries after 6 minutes.

 

The Bulldogs then got into second gear and upped the pace and were rewarded with further tries from winger Danny Garrett and the first two tries from hat trick hero scrum half Nick Williams. Skipper Long went under the sticks as well and converted three of the four tries scored to give the Bulldogs a 34-0 lead after 30 minutes.

 

The Raiders defence started to pick up and frustrated the Bulldogs for 5 or 6 minutes with some good hits but they couldn't prevent two further tries before the break from centre Neil Ratenbauch and a second for Graham Bailey. Both were converted by skipper Long to give the Bulldogs an unassailable 46-0 lead at half time.

 

The Raiders started the second half the brighter team and put the Bulldogs line under pressure for the first 10 minutes of the half but the Bulldogs defence was fantastic and kept the Raiders out. The Bulldogs finally regained possession and almost immediately scored when hooker Lejerri and scrum half Williams combined beautifully to put winger Millard in the corner for his first try of the season. Centre Dan Murphy continued his great try scoring record when he went over under the posts to maintain his record of scoring a try in each of the Bulldogs seven games as they went 56-0 up.

 

With both teams starting to tire a little the Raiders kept going and were rewarded with a consolation try when their winger broke the tackle and sneaked in under the posts the try was converted and it was 56-6. The try woke up the Bulldogs and they started to play some beautiful flowing rugby and it wasn't long before scrum half Williams completed his hat trick when he turned the Raiders fullback inside out to race away and score in the corner.

 

Further tries followed from Dave North and a second for hooker Lejerri. Both were converted by Long, who with a try and 11 conversions took his personal points tally for the day to 26 as the Bulldogs won 74-6.