As the 80 minutes drew to a close, Head Coach Matt Davies was philosophising on his team’s performance on the touchline, the pain-pleasure principle was at forefront of his summary.

It is unlikely that the squad on the field were channelling their inner Bentham, Freud or Epicurous but there was plenty of pain that led to the ultimate pleasure of five points in West London. Amongst them were the rediscovery of match fitness after the Christmas break, the howling gale, the unpleasant rain and the attrition of the game itself pushing players on both sides to their limits.

Playing into the wind in the first period Harpenden knew that there would be significant amounts of pressure to soak up, as well as some significant kicked bombardment. Yet, once the initial period of Stags pressure was repelled, Harps made their way up field and started to build some significant pressure of their own.

A series of driving mauls and pick and go moves couldn’t quite find the route to the line but as the pressure continued to mount dominance in the scrum paid dividends as Jimmy Speirs dotted down the push over. Harps returned to the CS Stags half and the home team were then reduced to 14 after a deliberate knock on.

Despite weathering the storm with one less player, Stags were soon down 0-14 as another scrum rumbled over the line for Speirs to drop onto. Sweeney, returning to the team for the first time since September, added his second conversion of the day.

As half time beckoned, a miscued clearance gave Stags a chance to get back in the game, which they gladly took. A number of short plays gave them the platform to spread the ball wide for a try to take the score to 5-14 at the break.

The hosts started the second period with plenty of energy and an appetite to turn the score back in their favour but with the wind now at their backs Harpenden had the potent threat of the boots of Boynes, Sweeney and Gulliford to alleviate any pressure.

After re-finding their field position Harps were able to extend their lead, once again making the most of their growing advantage in the pack, as Attfield latched himself on the back of a maul to score another five pointer. Sweeney added the extras. 5-21

CS Stags always had a threat with ball in hand and despite the conditions endeavoured to move the ball as much as possible. They retained the ball over a number of phases to score a well taken try, as they continued to try to find their way back into the game.

As the clock moved closer to the end of the game Harps pushed further ahead with a Sweeney penalty and then were able to put the result beyond doubt with try from short range for Max Eke. Sweeney’s conversion was added to complete an impressive but entirely predictable 100% record from the tee and a final score of 10-31 to Harpenden.

Harpenden:
Mahmood, Sims, Campion, Eke, Lacey, Funaki, Attfield, Speirs, Gulliford, Mann, Shaw, Boynes, McClean, Wilkinson, Sweeney
Reps: McKenzie-Cardy, Charlier, Johnson

Elsewhere, the 3rd XV secured a fantastic 10-24 win away to Biggleswade with Tristian Francis and Brian Muscat amongst the tries.