They'd put in huge amounts of effort, including extra fitness sessions on a Thursday to get them ready.
We started on the front foot and Lewis, making his debut, was unlucky not to score after making a fantastic run up the left wing.

Some great Go Forward, with lots of support saw Isaac B scoring our first try. Middlesbrough competed really well, were great in defence, and out rucked us for long periods of the game. But our defence held up really well and we prevented them from scoring in the first period. Elliot, who starred at fullback, made a typically strong run to score our second with Oliver J adding the conversion.
Boro scored first in the second third, before Elliot and Isaac B added further tries which ended some fantastic phases of play. Oliver J added two more conversions to go into the second break 26-5 up.

Our fitness really told in the final third, we were a little quicker to the breakdown now, and turning ball over. Riley H scored two further tries in this period with strong, direct runs, the Middlesbrough defence not being able to cope. Two more conversions made it 40-5 at the final whistle.

There were a number of outstanding performances during this match. Isaac W debuting at 9 was everywhere and was a fantastic link between forwards and backs. Jenson did well on his return to rugby and added steel to our set piece. Olly and Riley were tackling machines, and Isaac B led the team by example.

But Harry pipped others for forward of the match for his tight and loose play making some great runs to get us up the pitch. And Elliot, back of the match, was outstanding at fullback both in defence, making some fantastic tackles, and driving runs in attack.

A great start to the season!