The home side used their squad to the full, having at least seven players unavailable thorough other engagements and injury.

Maidenhead started brightly pushing Hertford back and from their first ruck, Hertford turned the ball to their advantage, spinning it down the line until the winger picked it up, only to be met by a huge crunching tackle from his opposite number James Caan, playing his first game, on the wing.

Maids opened their account after only five minutes when new signing Damian Bell hit his centre with such impact that he knocked on, allowing the home team to pick up the loose ball and drive it into a second phase.

Scrum half Matthew Neil, quickly reversed the play down the blind side allowing lan Lee to sprint into the corner.

Hertford responded quickly with a steal near the Maids 10 metre line and they sprinted clear of the defenders only to be stopped by a superb cover tackle from Dan Martin.

They increased their lead when the other new signing, forward Steve Bennett, drove through the Hertford defence setting up Charlie Branch to dart over the line for a score.

From another scrum on the right, Maids won one against the head through hooker Jay Bowden and the ball came down the line with Damien Bell bursting over the try line.

The Maids pack led a great break down the left with prop Chris Young and second row Adain O'Reilly prominent in the drives, and from the resulting ruck the point of attack was changed allowing the centres to pierce the Hertford defence when Nils Mordt broke through one tackle and slipped the ball to Chris Cracknell who sprinted under the posts from the 22 metre line.

With three conversions out of five from Mordt, the score ended at 26-0 to the home team at the break.

Hertford came out for the second half keen to get a score back and managed to slip the ball away from the Maids forwards and run through for their first score.

Shortly after this a great break from Mordt down the right flank set the ball up for a quick second, phase and Neil spun it out for the oncoming forwards to make their play.

Hooker Simon Ball received the pass and advanced 5 metres before slipping the ball to prop Terry Rainer who drew his defender before releasing Cracknell for another of his strong charges to the line.

Bell added another two tries following good work by Elliott Greening and Anthony Lane to make the final score 41- 5, capping off a fine team performance.