Flanker Josh Curtis breaks a tackle

IN muddy and misty conditions at Henham, Saffron Walden RFC U16’s stretched their unbeaten run to five games in the first outing of 2013.

Second-row Jed Butler powers forward

Full-back Josh Flack returned to try-scoring form and crossed the opposition line three times. His first came after only two minutes when he stepped into the back line at pace to pass the static defensive line.

Top try scorer, centre Andrew Smithc added two more to his tally, the first a fortunate pick-up off a dropped Ely ball in the 12th minute and the second after 33 minutes when he broke through the defence, evaded an attempted tap-tackle, and strolled in to score beneath the posts.

Quick-thinking scrum-half Dan Rust took a simple tap penalty five metres out and passed for fly-half Jesper Walker to dive over.

Ely never gave up and managed a try of their own just before the break following sloppy Walden tackling and two penalty infringements.

Not for the first time this season and sensing the game already to be won, Walden eased off in the second half. However, captain John Clark urged his players to return to accurate execution of the basics and was rewarded with a further four tries from his team-mates.

Flack achieved his hat-trick on 20 minutes from distance, and Clark scored after taking an opposition throw-in on the five-metre line and crashing over.

Walker strolled over to score beneath the posts for his second after a Rust dummy and blind-side run had fooled the opposition.

Finally, second row replacement Jed Butler used his strength from 10 metres out, evading several would-be tacklers before crossing for a determined try.

Walker’s six out of nine successful conversions added to his total on the day and edged him to top of the point-scoring table for the season.

Walden return to action in Saturday’s derby rematch with Shelford.