St Albans Centurions U14 followed up their closely fought cup defeat to Elmbridge Eagles with a merit table trip to Brentwood Eels on Saturday.

Preparations in the week had been impacted by the wet weather and they found opponents who, like Elmbridge, have been running this age group for a number of years, and therefore had a few more game smarts than the Centurions.

That said the St Albans boys are learning fast and there were plenty of tries early on.

Eels opened the scoring only for Eli Ferguson to equalise.

The home side responded by scoring another but a converted effort for the Cents, scored by Alex Collins Kanaan and kicked by Jack Bellwood, gave the visitors a 10-8 lead.

That though was the last time the Cents troubled the scoreboard, with Eels running in a further four tries, and while the effort was there for all to see from the Cents, the team need to improve the defensive aspect of the game.

Coach Rob Collins was staying upbeat though.

He said: "This was another good effort from the boys and its hard to be too disappointed when you can see the effort the lads put in.

"And with a little work at training, that first win will not be far away."

For more information about this age group or any of the other sides, junior and seniors, email gary.tetlow@outlook.com