Oundle Rugby Club start a new league season with a bang by bursting through the 50-point barrier

Winger Rian Hamilton was the star of the show with a hat-trick of tries in the final 15 minutes to put the finishing touches to a 52-31 win.

Oundle finished runners-up at this level last season before suffering a play-off final defeat. They will be confident of going one better this term after seeing off a team coached by former England international Mike Brown.

It was a great game between two teams committed to running the ball at every opportunity. Oundle took the lead on eight minutes with a try from number eight Shaun Adendorff quickly followed by a driving maul which enabled Grant Snelling to touch down. Both tries were converted by Matt Arden. Esher pulled a try back on 20 minutes, but on 28 minutes new scrum half and former Harlequins player Max Green finished off a scintillating move and scored under the posts. Arden converted, but Esher scored right on half-time to leave the score at 21-14 to Oundle at the break. Esher were quick out of the blocks in the second period and exploited poor defending in Oundle’s defensive line to level the scores and went ahead 24-21 with a converted penalty However in the last quarter replacement fly half Jamie Annand broke through Esher’s defence to score a try,which was followed by a debutant try for hooker Liam Burrows, and then it was all down to Hamilton who completed his hat-trick on the stroke of full-time. This was a satisfying start to the league campaign, but with 10 debutants in the squad there is a lot of improvement to come. On Saturday they host Leicester Lions, the former club of new Oundle coach Gareth Collins. **The other local clubs including Peterborough RUFC kick off their season on September 26, two weeks later than originally planned because of the summer drought.