WOOOOOW Super Hayden Freeman!!! (London Match Review)

After a lengthy break the Hurricanes returned to the Alexander Stadium to face a London Skolars team who would be looking to get their season off to a kick start and secure their first win. On a beautiful bank holiday afternoon, the sun was shining, and the weather was all in favour of some free-flowing rugby league.

As is becoming a regular occurrence it was the visitors that got off to the better of the two starts with early Hurricanes lack of discipline leading to a number of penalties and a yellow card for Canes winger Ryan Johnson. The early pressure was soon turned to points as the Skolars crossed for their first try of the afternoon and took them in to an early 0-4 lead.

The Hurricanes then seemed to settle in to their work and put together consecutive sets along with strong defensive efforts. As the ground began to heat up so did the Canes with multiple fast paced attacking volleys battering away at the visitors line. After repeat attempts it wasn’t long before it bubbled over and Hurricanes managed to break the shackles and open their account. A brace for the returning Hayden Freeman after 7 months out of the game due to injury showed that he was well and truly back and raring to go as he levelled the club record for individual appearances. Brad Martin also crossed the white wash after a darting run from Ben Stead opened a gap for him to waltz through untouched. Stead also unblemished with the boot leaving the half-time score 18-4 to the Hurricanes.

Once again after the break the visitors came out swinging with some real physicality up the middle creating space wider out for the Skolars to exploit. Early second half tries narrowed the gap however once again the home team rallied and got back to work and responded with some excellent tries of their own, namely an incredible individual effort from Ryan Johnson to get on the end of a Matthew Welham kick and score in the corner. A resilient Canes defence was lead by Kyle Kesik in the middle of the park playing all 80 and making his mark with 48 tackles. Hurricanes’ halves of Stead and Hookem ran the game well and looked threatening all afternoon creating chance after chance with a fair few butchered 2 on ones. The Canes did enough to get the job done however with tries also coming from Matty Welham, Liam Welham and the dream return was complete when Hayden Freeman went over for his hattrick late on in front of a very vocal Hurricanes crowd!!

A week off now before we see the Canes return to the Alexander Stadium to face North Wales Crusaders on the 21st of May. We hope to see you there.

Photography by Andy Shaw.