Danny Hunter says Saffron Walden are ‘earning their stripes’ in London One North and have shown they are a match for anyone in the division on their day.

The Henham side, who were promoted as champions from London Two North East last campaign, currently lie in seventh in the table following four wins, four defeats and a draw.

The head coach feels his side have acquitted themselves well and believes they are ‘growing in confidence’.

Hunter told the Reporter: “We’ve had a great start to the first part of the season.

“We’ve had a couple of losses that shouldn’t have been losses and we should have come away with a lot more than what we did.

“We’re challenging some of the big boys in the league and I think we’re really earning our stripes at the moment. The boys are working hard and growing in confidence.

“The 16-14 home defeat to Barking was definitely one the boys felt was painful to take and our draw with Eton Manor also hurt because we knew we should have won.

“They [Eton] were really strong in the scrum and that was one of the biggest scrums we’ve come across in this league but as soon as we got the ball we were dangerous.

“When we do play, we play incredible rugby and you would pay good money to see some of the tries we score.

“I don’t enjoy watching some of the big boys in this league half as much as I do watching us.”

On the whole the performances might have been there, however, the results have fluctuated but Hunter remains calm about Walden’s lack of stability.

He said: “I’ve not been frustrated by the inconsistency. I think we’re growing again in a new league.

“We’ve proved we can compete and also compete with some of the bigger teams as well.

“It’s the fact we know we can beat these teams.

“If we’ve lost to them away we’ve just said we’ll beat them on the turnaround.

“When we’ve got our game together we can turn teams over quite easily.

“We went down to [leaders] Tring who are unbeaten and [who have] been putting 90 points on teams and we lost 33-15.

“However, it was 15-15 at the break and our defensive efforts were superb. We just couldn’t get over the line.”

Up next for Walden are struggling Letchworth away.

Hunter said: “It’s a good chance for a win and it’s one we’ve got to go and really attack.

“We’re not worried about any other team apart from Letchworth this week so we’ll go down there and give it our all.

“If we put in a good performance we’ll get what we want.

“We won’t take anything for granted. We know anyone can beat anyone in this league.”