It could have been such a good day. The sun was shining and warm for the first Welwyn home match of the season and preceded by an excellent Vice President buffet lunch before kick off which was well attended. However, on the pitch Welwyn struggled to play to anything like the quality of their visitors, and were always going to be the losers in this encounter.

The early encounters provided Welwyn with hope they would be able to compete against a Ruislip side who's record against the Handside Lane team has previously been impressive. But when the visitors right winger burst through the home defence after only 3 minutes to score just right of the posts, the writing was on the wall. A converted try gave the visitors an early lead and from the restart Ruislip's continued drives into the Welwyn defence kept the home side under pressure and scrambling for any scraps of possession. A series of poor handling infringements by Ruislip allowed Welwyn to gain a little momentum, only for the quick Ruislip backs to pounce on a loose ball, spin it wide, recycle the ball with their own free running forwards and score their second try of the afternoon which was converted to give the visitors a 0 - 14 advantage.

Welwyn then attempted to mount their first real attack of the afternoon and drove midfield towards the Ruislip 22 metre line before technical infringements and bad handling halted their efforts. It was at one of these handling errors that Ruislip gained possession, attacked from deep and sliced their way through a rapidly retreating Welwyn defence to score their 3rd converted try of the afternoon. Welwyn, appearing outplayed and outpowered, continued to try hard to compete and showed some flashes of quality both in backs and forwards. Danny Creak at scrum half played particularly with skill and endeavour under extremely difficult circumstances and behind a pack that was under continuous pressure. But Welwyn conceded another 2 trys before half time to finish 0 - 31 down at the break.

With new resolve the home side started the second half clearly wanting to be considered as worthy competitors. The pack operated cohesively and a period of play in the midfield showed that Welwyn could on occasions properly compete with Ruislip. But it appeared that as soon as the ball was lost, Ruislip had the ability to spin it left and right and set up their speedy backs who drove at the heart of the Welwyn defence and who supported each other and recycled the ball as the Welwyn defence tackles were made. This kept the home defence under pressure throughout the second half and time and again they were penetrated first right, then left and had little answer to the Ruislip ability to keep the score board ticking over at pace. Welwyn substitutes were made in an effort to find a solution to the dilemma, but with little effect and Ruislip ran in 6 unanswered tries in the second half to beat a Welwyn side who have much endeavour, flashes of excellence but who for this game in any event were outplayed by a stronger side.