.... Fighting display leaves Hawks soaring

THE Dry Leas crowd was treated to ten tries as Henley Hawks got back to winning ways.

It was an entertaining, but bizarre game with the Hawks taking a 28-3 lead at the break only to find themselves 31-28 behind 20 minutes later. They gradually regained the upper hand and stretched away in the closing minutes.

It was all Henley in the first half, starting with a George Wood try, Roddy Giles kicking the first of his six conversions.

A good break from Giles and some excellent handling put Leo Webb over shortly after.

The Bristol side then got on the score board with a penalty from Keiran Hill. Hawks added two more tries before the break; Wood ran an excellent line to score under the posts and, from the restart, broke clear and, with support from Marcus Lowe, scored the bonus-point try.

To their credit, the Reds responded brilliantly scoring four tries in 20 minutes to take the lead.

Dan Fry grabbed a double, the second of which was a great breakout try.

Sandwiched between these was a penalty try as the Hawks illegally stopped a scrum on their own line.

Another clean break from Hill put Henry Bird over, with Hill converting to give the Reds a deserved lead.

Hawks, though, regained composure towards the end with tries from Sam Lunnon and Tom Hall.