In front of a large crowd following the Mitcham President's pre match lunch gathering of old Mitcham legends, Mitcham produced one of their best displays of the season to beat a lively Old Amplefordians 21-15 side, writes Grace Miller.

With winger Jack Morris, another one of Mitcham's promising youth players making his league debut, Mitcham started the stronger putting pressure on the opposition ball and not allowing their free running backs to flourish.

Mitcham took an early lead when a rolling maul following good line out work by Steve Bartlett, saw Mitcham captain Mark Whittall burrow over for a try. Liam Dewsbury converted from near the touchline.

A succession of penalties against Mitcham saw Old As force their way into the Mitcham half and a lapse in concentration allowed Old As to score in the corner following an overlap.

This spurred Mitcham on again and constant pressure in the Old As 22, allowed scrum half Kieran Dewsbury to dance through the Old As defence following good work again by the forwards. Mitcham took a 14-5 lead into half time.

The second half saw Old As into early ascendancy but strong Mitcham defence did not allow the opposition any quick possession.

The game was decided by a very smart Mitcham move when a drive by the forwards released quick ball which Liam Dewsbury kicked into space and was cleverly followed up by centre Neville Moriarty who anticipated the bounce and rounded the full back to score under the posts in his first game back after injury. Dewsbury converted again to give Mitcham an unassailable lead.

Old As continued playing with spirit and scored two tries on the wing in quick succession to give the score more respectability and earn a losing bunus point.

Next week Mitcham have a tough away fixture at London Media and welcome back several players from injury and unavailability.