Enfield Ignatians got their pre-season campaign off to a perfect start with a 36-5 victory against Braintree at Donkey Lane.

In their first of three matches prior to the London 3 North West season, Ignatians put out a youthful side, with seven players aged 20 or under.

Harry Masini, Hadee Fayaz and Ben Mills all secured points for their side in a comfortable victory, however, with youth doing the business on this occasion.

A blistering start from the hosts saw Masini notch the first score of the game after being played in by Luke Yoxall, and shortly afterwards two excellent kicks from either flank played a huge part in setting up Fayaz for his brace.

Although Enfield dropped the pace slightly after their strong opening, Braintree weren’t able to take advantage, and Masini was soon in for his second score of the match.

Mills was the next to crash over following a maul from Jack Wilson’s kick, but Braintree got on the board shortly after through a wonderful solo effort that managed to evade the entire Ignatians defence.

However, it proved to just be a blip, and Liam Dunne rounded off the game after good work from Jonathan Hamilton to get Ignatians’ pre-season campaign off to a flyer.

After the game, head coach Shane Manning said: “Some bits and pieces of our game, granted that some of our players hadn’t played together, were good – in fact very good. The players will have a chance to again [against Stockwood Park] on Saturday [August 31].”

The remaining pre-season schedule sees the side host Stockwood Park this Saturday before travelling to Biggleswade on Saturday, September 7.