The opening day of the new rugby union season brought successes for Hitchin and Letchworth.

The Legends had a 38-21 win at home to Shelford in Regional One South East.

And after conceding an early penalty, they scored the first try of the season after a great break by Will Titherington was finished off by Charlie Parkhouse, Josh Sharp landing the conversion.

However, the majority of the first half belonged to the visitors and they were heading for a comfortable 18-7 half-time advantage until a Letchworth line-out win and a barrelling run from Tom Lewis put Titherington in under the posts for another seven points.

Shelford kicked their third penalty of the day at the start of the second half to go 21-14 in front but when Sharp put a penalty into the corner, the line-out was caught and driven over for Kyle Hughes to score.

Sharp's conversion levelled things up at 21-21 and minutes later a sweeping backs-led move put Kaz Henderson in for a fourth converted try and the bonus point.

And still Letchworth came forward, Llewelyn Jones carried over try number five before Hughes wrapped things up late on.

Hitchin's victory came on the road at Hackney in Counties One Herts Middlesex - winning 34-23.

They came racing out of the gates and were ahead after two minutes, a loose ball five metres out snapped up by Matt Trussell.

Hackney have a notoriously effective rolling maul and their first effort carried them 20 metres up the field.

A spilled pass changed the momentum though and after a kick through forced a five-metre attacking scrum, Hitchin went over for their second try through skipper Frazer McGown, Pete Stanbury kicking the extras.

Hackney got on the board with a try and then added a penalty before taking the lead with another unconverted try in the corner.

But Hitchin came back to go into half-time 17-13 ahead, Oscar Norton-Taylor stopped short but James Bolter powering over from point-blank range.

Their bonus-point try came early in the second half from a well worked line-out. McGown finding Ruiri Shanahan coming at full speed, with Stanbury extending the lead to 11 points.

At this point Hitchin were threatening to run away with the match and they extended their lead further through debutant second-row Matty Knight.

But Hackney were given a way back in with two yellow cards to Hitchin and they took full advantage with two tries.

The return of their binned men eased the pressure and a counter-attack put pressure on the Hackney line, that Bolter finished off to seal the win.

The seconds play under the lights of Friday at home to Weston, kick-off at 7.30pm, while the firsts face Brunel University at home on Saturday at 3pm.