London 2 North - Chelmsford 47 Stowmarket 10

THE hosts eventually romped to victory against Stowmarket, but only after being given a scare by the visitors, who led 10-7 at the break.

Stowmarket have been elevated into London 2 North on the back of successive promotions and played an attractive open style of rugby with the emphasis being placed on youth.

Simon Hoult had the chance to give Chelmsford an early advantage, but his kick went wide of the posts after Stowmarket were penalised for offside.

Nick Hankin then knocked the ball over the line to spurn a scoring chance for Chelmsford, before Jim Cooke dived over from a scrum, minutes later, to score a try.

After 15 minutes of dominance, Chelmsford began to make a series of errors and let Stowmarket back into the game.

The visitors were particularly dangerous on the break and after being awarded a penalty, they took a quick tap, one that caught the home side napping and scored a try in the corner to reduce the arrears.

Stowmarket then scored their second try on the half hour with a well-worked effort in the corner.

The visitors went into the half-time break ahead after Hoult narrowly missed the target from fully 45 yards and Rhys Mason was short of the line.

Chelmsford got back into the game early in the second half, Hoult fending off several tackles following a thunderous run by Dan Trayler.

Minutes later, the home side scored again when Hankin touched down in the corner to make it 19-10.

With Hoult beginning to kick to touch to keep the visitors penned in, Stowmarket started to wilt under pressure.

Adam Ferrier made a run deep into the Stow 22 and despite being penalised for not releasing the ball, subsequent pressure resulted in centre Paul Smedley scoring a fourth try.

Chelmsford scored a further three tries through flanker Jamie Hines, Chris Bown and Hankin, Hoult converting all these scores to take his personal match tally to 15 points.