LONDON 2 NORTH: Chelmsford 71 Canvey Island 5

UNDER-STRENGTH Chelmsford produced an impressive 10 try-haul, including a hat-trick from flanker Josh Clarke and an impressive 21-point hall from scrum-half Sasu Wihapu.

Recording their largest-ever win since the league’s inception, Chelmsford centre Nick Hankin fed the ball to wing forward Josh Clarke who was on hand to touch down for a try which was converted by Wihapu.

Chelmsford then suffered a scare when Canvey’s loose-head prop had the ball over the line, but the referee deemed a knock on in the lead up to this.

With Wihapu starting to marshall his troops, Canvey had no answer to their excellent free-flowing rugby and Dan Trayler ran through a flimsy Canvey defence to complete a run he had started 30 metres out.

A further three tries were scored in the first half, through Hankin , Paul Welch and Clarke.

To round matters off, the fifth try was scored when Wihapu chipped a kick over the opposition’s heads and the Canvey player was tackled into touch.

From the resultant catch and drive, skipper Kevin Prior touched down for a try in his final game as captain.

Within the first few minutes of the second half, Chelmsford were awarded a penalty when Canvey were caught offside and Wihapu made no mistake with his kick.

Chelmsford then begun to run riot and Clarke grabbed his hat-trick try.

Canvey scored an unconverted try and centre Hankin stepped inside to score an excellent converted try to bring up the 50 points.

Prop Ian Couling then scored his eighth try of the season.

At this stage Canvey’s discipline seemed to have deserted them and number 8 Matt Atkinson broke from the back to score a well worked try to bring the score to 64-5.

The final try was scored a few minutes later when from a ruck, flanker Paul Redford dived over to record the 10th and final try.