Rugby round-up: Letchworth victorious but Hitchin beaten

Using their two week layoff since the defeat at Oundle to fine tune certain areas of their game, they went on to defeat Tring 24-22, their second success of the season.

There was a welcome return from Charlie Parkhouse from National 1 side Bishops Stortford who shone in the back division along with two try Will Titherington and young winger Josh Staddon.

However it was the improvement in team performance that was most encouraging.

Letchworth started brightly but lost Josh Sharp to the sin bin for a high tackle.

They managed to see that 10 minutes off without many alarms and the restored Sharp set up the first try by putting a penalty into the Tring 22.

The resulting line-out was caught and driven over the line with Ben Wilkinson the last man to touch the ball.

Tring responded with a converted try from Ben Hogan but Letchworth hit back with Titherington finishing off a fine move for another unconverted try.

It was Tring who took the lead into half time with a second five-point score, this one minus the conversion.

They could have had a third but for a knock-on and Letchworth made them pay for that error 10 minutes into the second period, Parkhouse finishing off after Staddon was stopped short of the line.

Sharp nailed the conversion this time but Tring got seven points of their own to lead 19-17.

However, the final try of the day belonged to Letchworth, Titherington set-up by Parkhouse with Sharp again kicking the extras.

Tring took an easy three points in front of the posts to leave it at a two-point game and they threw the kitchen sink at the hosts late on, who were not helped by Jack Askham being shown yellow for a deliberate infringement.

And Tring almost scored the winner with a chip through on the final play but Parkhouse was there on the cover to deny them.

Hitchin had taken the lead in their Counties One Herts Middlesex at Welwyn but were eventually beaten 22-5, the home side putting in a fin performance.