Raiders extend lead as Hewick gets a hat-trick

Sam Hewick put down a hat-trick of tries as the Roundstone Lane side stretched their lead at the top of National 2 South, profiting from Redruth and Henley failing to pick up bonus points.

Raiders did just that, getting back to winning ways to go eight points clear of Henley at the summit and nine clear of third-placed Redruth, who, however, have two games in hand.

Dawson said: “It was a scrappy day and scrappy match and the weather wasn’t conducive for rugby to either side.

“We were pretty happy with the result, though, and the performance was adequate. It was good to get some tries on the board as most of our main rivals didn’t manage to do that, which is positive.

“Overall, it was a case of getting the job done and getting out of there. They tried to drag us down to their level, but to get six tries, too, that was great.

“We had one eye on the rest of the games, Cornish All Blacks were trailing (Henley) 10-9 and we were willing them to get a late penalty and win the match. But if we can keep picking up bonus points when others can’t, it’ll put us in good shape.

“With 20 minutes to go, we were able to use the bench to rest our experienced players for this week coming.”