Crusaders crush the Stags in Shield
Hemel Stags opened their Kingstone Press League 1 Shield account with a heavy home defeat on Sunday.
North Wales Crusaders left Pennine Way with a comfortable 42-18 victory.
Ryan Smith touched down twice for the visitors – two of seven tries for Crusaders.
Rob Massam, Jordan Andrade, Kenny Baker, Jack Hansen and Alex Thompson also went over for the Welsh side, while Tom Johnson successfully kicked all seven conversions.
Tries from Mitch Vincent, Mike Stewart and Dylan Readman, plus six points from the boot of Ben Stead, kept the Stags in contention for the first 50 minutes but they were ultimately well beaten.
Next up for Hemel is a trip to Oxford on Sunday, where they lostnarrowly 24-18 in early June.