Saracens star helps Old Albanian to crucial victory
Old Albanians v Hull Ionians - Max Malins in action for the Old Albanians. Picture: Karyn Haddon. - Credit: Archant
The return of Max Malins helped Old Albanian Rugby Club to a well-deserved and potentially vital 50-28 victory over Hull Ionians in National One.
The Saracens and England U20 fly-half strutted his stuff at Woollams two seasons ago and has retained his registration with the club.
And his distribution and acceleration caused havoc for the visiting East Yorkshiremen.
Mind the sheer strength and speed of winger Segun Oluwadurotimi was equally as impressive although both his and Malins’ performance would have been wasted were it not for the forwards had not provided decent possession.
And for the most part they did just that.
For certainly half of this entertaining match OAs were able to contain and occasionally overwhelm game opponents.
But there were times in the early second half when even the result seemed in question.
Most Read
- 1 The latest court results for the St Albans area
- 2 Hybrid Charter Market agreed for St Albans
- 3 Community green spaces at risk of development on St Albans estate
- 4 St Albans woman defies odds to become oldest with Rett Syndrome
- 5 'Spellbinding performances' in St Albans Musical Theatre Company's production of Rent
- 6 What the fox? Mystery shoe thief revealed!
- 7 St Albans care teams win big at annual awards ceremony
- 8 Remembering 'Mr Harpenden' - the indomitable Michael Weaver
- 9 Churches group organises meeting for Ukrainians and host families
- 10 Hospices announce plans to join forces
Those lax times, particularly either side of half-time, found the home defence wanting and Hull made hay, scoring 28 points to just seven in reply.
Even though two of the Hull tries were of the penalty version it speaks much of the strength the visitors were able to exert on an Albanian side that appeared to be out of sight in the first half hour.
But while the visitors will be unhappy with the defeat, they will be pleased to have got a priceless league point in the process.
However, Albanian were certainly delighted to record their first win in this new year against a team sharing their struggles at the bottom end of the table.
The result leaves OAs second from bottom but now just one point behind Hull and five behind Loughborough Students and safety.
They will want to review their precision but it has been a while since Woollams has seen seven home tries and this can be seen as good preparation for the trip to Birmingham Moseley on Saturday.