St Benedict’s secured their place in the next round of the NatWest Cup with a dominant and attacking display against London Oratory as they ran out as 44-20 victors.

The story of the day, without doubt, was that of St Benedict’s openside Matt Delargy. Delargy joined St Benedict’s from London Oratory as a centre and has only recently moved to the flank, but he looked a natural as he bagged a hat-trick. Indeed five of St Benedict’s seven tries were scored by their back row, which was indicative of the work that they were getting through.

In truth, it was a game that St Benedict’s were in charge of pretty much from start to finish, only in the last fifteen to twenty minutes, perhaps when they had just taken their foot off the gas a little, that London Oratory really threatened the try line, scoring two late tries and nearly a third to make the scoreline a little more respectably.

St Benedict’s were 22-6 up at the break, taking a calm early lead through a penalty before number 8 Bogdan De Berg charged almost the length of the field, with Delargy finishing things up expertly.

Ten minutes later the home side were over again, this time with Harry Hanley at outside centre, breaking away down the left hand side. A further ten minutes or so on, and St Benedict’s were over again, and once again it was that man Delargy, finishing up some strong driving play.

That gave his team a 22-6 half time lead, London Oratory had landed a couple of penalties, and put them in real control.

That control was to become even stronger just a few minutes into the second half as Delargy went over to complete a hat-trick that had taken less than forty minutes to secure. Hooker Tom Batt made excellent yards, as he had done so brilliantly all day, allowing Brendan Rice to move it left, where Delargy showed good strength to drive over.

27-6 quickly became 34-6 as Rice fielded a London Oratory kick and Matthew Ilube was released down his right wing. He offloaded to giant lock Sefan Tsang, who in turn offloaded to blindside Louis Morris, who was left with the simply task of just flopping over the line.

Even at 34-6 though, they did not rest, and having recovered the kick off, they marched back into London Oratory territory, eventually winning a penalty for their efforts. The fast thinking Rice tapped the ball and showed great pace and power to wriggle his way over the line, extending the advantage to 39-6.

That try was perhaps the moment where St Benedict’s just realised that the game was secure, and maybe took their foot off the gas. It was certainly the period of the game in which London Oratory had their spell, a spell that was encapsulated by the excellent Alexander Dooling at fly half.

Dooling’s quality was rewarded just shy of the hour as he showed off the full range of skills, with a dummy, a step, a hip wiggle and the some good acceleration to get over the line and just restore a touch of pride.

Perhaps it dented St Benedict’s pride a little too, for within a minutes they were camped once again deep in London Oratory territory, where after a series of drives, Morris drove over for his second of the afternoon, taking his team’s lead out to 44-13.

London Oratory did have time for one more score though, where once again Dooling was the catalyst, producing a delightful passing offload for his substitute outside him to go cruising over.

It was a consolation though, in truth. St Benedict’s were simply outstanding, and their intensity and pace was just too much to handle on the day.

Their next Cup outing will be against the outstanding KCS Wimbledon, who defeated UCS yesterday, with the RFU cameras at that game once again, it is one not to be missed.

Full Time: St Benedict’s 44-20 London Oratory

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