Eastern Rhinos 62
Elmbridge Eagles 0
London and South Premier Division
THE Eastern Rhinos rugby league side cruised into the end of season play-offs with a comprehensive win against bottom side Elmbridge Eagles.
The Rhinos ran in 12 tries without reply against a young but plucky Eagles side who never stopped running in the heat.
Jay Hatcher opened the scoring with a brace of tries in the opening 15 minutes, the big forward’s drives unstoppable from 20 metres.
The first was from a scrum and the second, after a Brendan Cook break, had put the Rhinos in a good scoring position in front of the posts.
From the restart, Elmbridge contained the Rhinos in their own half for the duration of the opening tackle set but Peter LeMarquand’s kick was collected by Eddie Smith who broke down the wing then set up Ed Holland to score.
Before half-time Rory Hartley was to add two further tries. The first was scored when he stepped his tackler and touched down from close range after good work by Paul LeMarquand had put the Rhinos in front of the Eagles posts.
The second came with a break from his own 30-metre line to give the Rhinos a 28-0 half-time lead.
The Rhinos opened the second half with two quick tries, Paul LeMarquand broke through the centre before offloading to Brendan Cook who brushed his tacklers aside to touch down.
Eddie Smith then intercepted a loose pass and raced to touch down from within his own half. Powerful running from LeMarquand and Cook again put the Rhinos in a scoring position on 53 minutes, setting up Jay Hatcher to complete his hat-trick.
Rob Pickard was on the end of a cross field move and raced away down the left wing to score and Adam Walker scored in an almost identical move but down the right wing.
Quick cross field passing from a penalty set up Rory Hartley on the right wing to touch down in the corner and complete his hat-trick and, in the final minutes of the game, a carbon copy move put Eddie Smith through to score.
Peter LeMarquand converted nine of the 12 tries to enhance a comprehensive Rhinos victory.
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