The summer covers came off at Enfield Ignatians as the London Two North-West side picked up the pace by staging an intra-club trial game under lights at Donkey Lane on Thursday.

A certain ring rustiness was evident as, despite plenty of good endeavour, the final passes didn’t always go to hand as Team B mastered their A team counterparts six tries to three.

However, beyond the mere confines of the scoreboard, coach Shane Manning was able to rejig his options during the course of a game split over four quarters of 20 minutes.

The New Zealander was also able to observe proceedings first-hand after covering the hooker position for half of the game.

He said: “It was a good chance to see 60 plus players perform (in a match-type situation) and, as a club, I think we got a lot out of the exercise.

“The trial game marked the end of pre-season and we will now pick up the pace as we continue to train twice weekly.

“We have a friendly at Braintree on Friday, August 24 and, at this stage, I’m thinking in terms of travelling with a squad of 23.”