The Hammers opened their account in London South East 3 with an excellent win away from home against a strong Enfiled side on a sunny day in north east London.  The Hammers were forced into a number of changes during the week before the game and fielded a team mixed with experience from last year and handing out league debuts to seven new players to the club (four of which who started).

The game kicked off with the Hammers playing up the slope and it was not long before they were under pressure from a big and physical Enfield pack.  The Hammers back row of Ryan Dilley,  Rod Anderson and Barry O'Sullivan (who looks keen to follow in his namesakes distinguished off field heriocs with the ladies) were soon being tested as the Enfield pack began to click through the gears and release their sharp backs who tested the hammers defence time and again.  It was not long before a break down the short side by the Enfield outside half stretched the Hammers defence, quick recyled ball enabled them to go wide and they had scored a well worked try.

The Hammers responded well however and the front five began to put pressure on the Enfield set piece, with the back row spoiling ball and the centre partnership of Rich Magnus and Simon Ringshaw holding firm and tackling well.  The Hammers were still under pressure however and a series of infringments and penalties enabled Enfield to keep play in the Hammers half.  On the half hour, Enfield again broke through the Hammers defence and a superb try saving tackle by Cameron Pfeffer over the line on the Enfield prop gave the Hammers the get out of jail card they needed.  The Hammers cleared their lines and regained their composure and began to start to assert themselves on their opposition.

The Enfield line out bagan to creak as the Hammers front five upped the pressure.  Leach and Nielsen began to snaffle opposition ball and looked assured on their own throw to feed the outside backs with quality first phase possession.  The good looking lads in front row (Blyghton, Dray and Goggin) also started to up the pressure in the scrum and make life difficult for the opposition.  At half time the Hammers were 7-0 down but by no means out.

From the restart playing down the slope the Hammers went on the attack.  The forwards made good in roads into the Enfield defence, ably marshalled by young scrum half Ed Clarke.  The penalty that followed from the pressure gave the Hammers their first points of the game, settled the team and saved Adam Wottons blushes after he misfired his earlier effort.

From the restart the Hammers collected the ball superbly from Leach and James Weeks guided the ball straight back down the field to keep the pressure on Enfield.  Continued work from Nielsen and Leach in the line out saw the Hammers steal ball and gave Weeksy the platform to control the game and keep the Enfield forwards on the back foot.  It was not long before the Hammers scored.  Clean ball off the top of the line out from Nielo saw the backs spread the ball wide.  Wotton came into the line from full back and made the break bursting through before feeding Cameron on the wing for the score.  This try was followed by more good work from the pack, gradually grinding down the opposition until the mecurial Dan Djikic managed to use his slight of hand to drop the ball over the line and convince the referee that he had scored.  'Look into my eyes, look into my eyes' said Dan and ref duly awarded the try.

As the game eased into the middle of the second half Goggin received his first yellow card of the season for excessive use of the boot.  He was heard later in the bar musing to himself about the diffculty in drawing the line between an acceptable stamp on the opposition and an excessive stamp.  One wonders whether Luke will ever draw any conclusions from these testing questions.

The game was wrapped up in the following five minutes, a catch and drive from the line out gave Weeksy the space to cut inside and feed the oncoming Scott Foley to crash over for his first try for the Hammers.  What followed however was part brilliant, part humiliation.  A good Hammers line out line fed the ball to the back row who bashed it up into midfield, quick ball fed Weeksy who turned, looked up and knocked over a 25 metre drop goal.  This excellent piece of skill was completely undermined by the embarrassing whoops of joy given out by the emotional back line.  The forwards marched back to the half way line, their heads bowed as they tried to distance themselves from the girls.

As the game drew to an end, Enfiled made a final push to score but were held out by some resolute defending from the whole team.  The final whistle bought the Hammers a well deserved win and a great start to the new league campaign.

The next few weeks will prove to be a challenging time for the club in the new league as many players disappear to France in search of brie, baguettes and world cup glory for their respective nations.  Heres hoping the ausies, kiwis and south africans fall in the group stages leaving England to limp to glory yet again and the Hammers to maintain a full squad of players through September and October.

Hammers:  Adam Wotton, Cameron Pfeffer, Simon Ringshaw, Rich Magnus, Dan Djikic, James Weeks, Ed Clarke, Barry O'Sullivan, Rod Anderson, Ryan Dilley, Alex Nielsen, James Leach, Luke Goggin, Nick Dray, Mark Blyghton.  Subs: Chris Hird, Scott Foley, James Miller.

Man of the Match:  James Weeks

Tin Man:  The Backs - No one likes to hear 'whoops' of joy on the rugby field.

The Scribe.