It was another tough day at the office for Enfield Ignatians as they fell to 27-22 defeat at the hands of last season’s play-off contenders Hammersmith & Fulham at Hurlingham Park in the London Two North-West.

Not for the first time this season, the visitors paid the price for not finishing off their opponents by losing another bonus point in as many weeks.

Despite a number of enforced changes, the blue and golds were on the front foot for most of the first half-hour and, although they conceded a soft breakaway try, they responded positively via a Jake Bates penalty and well-worked try from Robert Rigby.

Bates added the extras before disaster struck, as two unenforced errors in their own 22, led to the Hammers claiming two tries via Alex Gee and James Lo against the run of play.

Ignatians got into some good field positions in the second half which resulted in well worked scores for Luke Ellis and Tim Yaworski.

Bates's successful conversion of the Ellis try put the visitors in the driving seat at 22-17 up.

But some poor decision making led to Hammersmith claiming a pushover try from James Smart before the hosts again cranked up the pressure with Gee completing his hat-trick which turned the game.

Enfield have a week off before entertaining high-flying Belsize Park in the league on Saturday, November 19.

Ignatians IIs did well to rescue a 20-20 draw in the Herts-Middlesex Merit Table Two table-topping clash against Hackney IIs following tries from Brad Smith and Lawrence White. Paul Duke also did his best by adding ten points via the boot.