After suffering narrow defeats over the Christmas & New Year periods to opposition residing in the upper eschelons of the league, Saints played host to Grasshoppers on Saturday, a side they had lost narrowly to earlier in the season, but who were below them in the division.

On a bitterly cold afternoon at Boggymead, St. Albans made the brighter start, but having taking nothing from their early forays into the visitors territory, they then found themselves with some defending to do against a dangerous looking Grasshoppers attack.

St. Albans were the first to open their account. From decent first phase possession, Saints broke through the initial defensive line but found themselves stopped 5 metres out. The visitors were judged offside at the breakdown and Saints showed their attacking intent by opting to kick for touch. The plan worked as from the 'catch & drive' the ball was smuggled to no. 8 Craig Huddleston to touch down. The difficult conversion from out wide was squeezed over by full back Mark Kentish and Saints had the platform. They continued to look the more dangerous side when in the tight, but out wide, the visitors were showing potency. From a scrum in the middle of the pitch, a straight forward move was run but a missed tackle in midfield allowed the Grasshoppers' wing, entering the line between his centres, to burst through. His full back was on hand to take the try scoring pass and touch down under the posts. After Saints early dominance, it was perhaps a surprise to see a scoreline of 7-7 with 20 minutes played.

At this point Saints lost scrum half Alex Deane to a hand injury, to be replaced by player coach Ben Stocken, whose barking around the fringes seemed to inspire Saints to 'mix up' their game a little. St. Albans were now back in the ascendency again. A second try, almost a carbon copy of the first was scored, again by Huddleston. Although Kentish narrowly missed the conversion, he followed up with 2 consecutive penalties to give Saints a commanding 18-7 lead. There was still time before halftime however, for the visitors to strike back with a try and a penalty to reduce the deficit to 3.

The second half began well for the hosts when Kentish kicked another superbly struck penalty, but thereafter the game became scrappy. The referee, was becoming infuriated with constant infringements, firstly by the visitors, but then by the hosts as well. Grasshoppers were reduced to 14 via the inevitable yellow card before Saints followed suit. No sooner had Grasshoppers got their player back on ther field than they were once again reduced to 14. Saints, however could find no continuity during this period and their frustration was manifesting itself. They conceded consecutive penalties, both well converted by the visitors to bring the scores level. Some schoolboy errors in both attack and defence had given Grasshoppers a sniff of an unlikely turnaround.

With 15 minutes remaining Saints made the decisive score. From an initial lineout, Saints made good yards, electing then to use their backs to make holes in the visitors defence. Ultimately the ball was recycled back into the forwards and with 8 metres to make, their well drilled pack had the nous to gradually wear down the defence to score in the corner. As is often the case, it was veteran John Sayers who made the vital touchdown. Although was still plenty of time on the clock, Saints duly saw the game out without any fuss, retaining possession when required and stopping any Grasshoppers attacks at source. Overall, a well desrved victory, but one that needed to be hard fought.

St. Albans XV - Kentish, Lane, Grove, Townson, Moskofian, Alderton, Deane; Hayes, Hume, Lemiere, Gorman, Morris, Sayers, Styles, Huddleston. reps - Weldon, Stocken, Sharp.