Finchley 2's hammer Tring

Stand in skipper Gareth Morgan decided that, in order to make it competitive, he would let the 3 Finchley subs play for Tring and a big shout out goes to Tom Brown, Jamal Faisal and Giles Hill for filling in for the opposition.

Finchley started well and were in front after just 3 minutes. Cohen and Davidson combined well to make a good break down the blind side and then after a couple of phases debutant James Huang rounded off some good team play to score in the left corner. Davidson bended the ball through the posts with the wind and Finchley were 7-0.

The next 20 minutes were then frustrating. Tring could have drawn level if it were not for a try line tackle by Wheldon and despite Finchley having the advantage of the wind behind they lacked cohesion. Good positions were wasted by a combination of handling errors, a series of "brain farts" (this was the term used by Gareth Winky Morgan at half time) and too much picking and going from the base of rucks.

Fly half Alex Young then demonstrated that he still has an old experienced head on those even older shoulders and gave some of the lads a talking to. Subsequently, things improved for the final stages of the half. Opariuc's rampaging runs eventually paid dividends when he crossed the line from a tap penalty and when Davidson converted it was 14-0. Huang then scored his second when he rounded off a move with an outside break which was once again converted by Davidson.

Soon after Finchley were 28-0 up when a good passing move, where Ed "Chutney Raj" Buxton showed that he can still draw a man and give a pass, led to Davidson scampering over on the right wing and running round under the posts to make his own job of converting the try an easy one. Opariuc then sniped over once again after some good forward play and Davidson's conversion meant Finchley were 35-0 up at half time.

At half time the Finchley senior players reminded the team not to get carried away with the score line and that the task would be much harder playing into the wind. It was clear that Tring were not putting up much opposition and it was clear we needed to cut out the mistakes and work on playing our patterns so we are ready for tougher tests in the weeks to come.

In the second half the Finchley line out continued to work well and the forwards managed to gain a lot of yards catching and driving. Opariuc managed to cross the line twice more picking and going from the base through a hapless Tring defence, however, on both occasions there were numbers out wide and any number of players could have got the points. Both tries were converted by Davidson.

Much to Finchley's annoyance Tring managed a consolation try with ten minutes to play (even though it was scored by Finchley player Giles Hill who rampaged over!)

However it was Finchley, and Huang, who had the last laugh. After some good work in the middle of the park by the pack Huang was once again put away and he stepped his man and beat the covering full back for pace to round off his debut with a hat-trick. Garrett missed the drop kicked conversion.

The final score was 54-7 but it could have, and should have, been more, especially when Garrett was denied a try in the corner during the final play. It was a good win from a strong Finchley 2XV but we will need to improve our precision and cut out stupid mistakes in the weeks to come.

The watching Aslan Kaplan awarded debutant James Huang the Man of the Match award but, although this was not a surprising choice, this reporter would have given it to Jimmy Cohen for some great work in the line-out and excellent energy in the loose.