Saffron Walden ended their pre-season campaign with a 41-29 win over Huntingdon.

And they will hope to make a good start in London Two North East when they welcome Romford & Gidea Park this weekend.

Huntingdon opened the scoring after a scrappy opening period with a try out wide.

But Walden got back into the game and strung phases together before left winger Oscar Norman set off on a 40-metre run along the touchline.

Norman offloaded to fly-half Paul Marshall, who sent captain Mark Kimberley over for a converted try.

Walden extended their lead with a brace of tries from Norman, the first after a good break by second row Charlie Potter and the other from close range as the hosts dominated.

But the visitors hit back before the interval after intercepting a pass to make it 17-10.

The hosts shuffled their pack during the break and saw Alex Pakenham-Walsh go over within two minutes of the restart.

The next try came after several phases saw full-back Tom Price chip over the top 20 of the Huntingdon defence for Kimberley to win the race and touch down for his second score.

Number eight Matt Holden got in on the act when he reacted quickly to a loose ball and outpaced the defenders to score under the posts.

And Walden’s final score came when centre Doug Olaga dived over to put them 41–10 ahead after 62 minutes.

After making two more changes, they saw Marshall go off with an eye injury and Huntingdon took advantage after a penalty kick to the corner as a good driving maul led to their third try.

Walden then experimented by deliberately going down to 14 players to simulate a yellow card situation for the last 10 minutes and the visitors scored twice more to narrow the gap to 12 points at the final whistle.

The Saxons beat their Huntingdon rivals by an emphatic 90-0 margin and take on Cambridge thirds this weekend, with both matches starting at 3pm and supporters welcome.

Walden are always looking for new players to play for the first team in London Two North East or the Saxons in Eastern Counties One West.

Email info@swrfc.co.uk or graham.marshall2@ntlworld.com if interested.