Harpenden demolish Chiswick with nine try blitz

Aaron Wilde stretches to ground the ball (Image: Archant)

Revelling in fast conditions underfoot, they thrilled the large crowd with a powerful brand of attacking rugby that continuously had their opponents on the back foot.

Afterwards coach Phil Cooper said: “This is a wonderful result and one which is the culmination of some really hard work by the whole first team squad during the past two weeks.”

Harpenden, bolstered by the return of flanker Andy Reed and No 8 Adam Wheatley from long-term injuries, opened the scoring on 10 minutes with a try by left-wing Adam Sterling after a blistering run by right-wing Tom Muskett.

Prop Will Peck crashed over for the second try two minutes later following good work by Wheatley, and on 17 minutes flanker Chris Wilkinson made it three.

Harpenden notched up the bonus point on 21 minutes with a Reed try and five minutes later it was the turn of centre Aaron Wilde to get on the score sheet with a well-taken try to give them a 29-0 half-time lead.

Chiswick, who had started to get back into the game before the break, deservedly got a try of their own on 52 minutes, but eight minutes later Reed grabbed his second after centre Jonny MacDonald had pounced on a kick ahead by fly-half Joe Tennant. And within three minutes Sterling had got his second try, thanks to another powerful run by Muskett.

Despite Wilde being yellow-carded on 72 minutes, Harpenden refused to ease up and it was no surprise when Muskett, a lively threat all afternoon, got a try of his own after another trademark run to further cement his position as the team’s leading try scorer.

Chiswick, to their credit, never gave up and were rewarded with a fine try, but, with the referee again checking his watch, Reed capped a sensational comeback to bring up his hat-trick after a quickly taken tap penalty inside the visitors’ 22.