Hoppers Retain Level 6 Rugby with a Bonus Point
Seniors: First XV: 28th March 2026
| Harpendon | 43 | 26 | Grasshoppers |
Grasshoppers travelled to Harpenden for their penultimate game of the season knowing that a bonus point would keep them out of the relegation play-offs. It could also have been an opportunity to leapfrog Harpenden, two points ahead of G’s, with a win.
So, Harpenden kicked of on a chilly spring day with a strong wind behind them with a strong side but G’s struggled to sustain any pressure. G’s defended well but it was Harpenden who broke the deadlock on 25 minutes with a converted try shortly followed by a penalty to make the half-time score 10-0.
G’s felt confident that they could pull back the ten points quite easily with the strong wind now in their favour and all looked well when number eight, Louis Brown went over for the try which, when converted by stand-off, Charlier Lecuyer narrowed the gap to 10-7.
Harpenden then killed off any hope of G’s getting a losing bonus point as they ran in three tries and added two conversions to take their lead to 29-7. However, with G’s hope now being a four try bonus point, they set about it with tries from replacement, Billy Graham-Park and hooker, Jack Walkenden with Charlie Lecuyer adding a conversion. G’s continued to press but Harpenden struck back with a converted try to make it 36-19. G’s pressed pressed for the fourth try but kept coming up short and so it was Harpenden who broke out to take the score to 43-19 with a converted try.
This heralded the final play of the day as the G’s supporters looked on in horror. However, G’s kept their nerve and heads and maintained the final play of the game in Harpenden’s 22 and over went second row, Josh Harper for the bonus point try and with the Charlie Lecuyer conversion the referee blew his whistle to the jubilation of the travelling G’s supporters to make the final score 43-26 and with the bonus point they can now travel to London Irish Wild Geese knowing that they now safe from the relegation play-off.
Grasshoppers Women continued their 100% win record as they beat Kilburn away 12-77.
