Westcliff’S first ever game in the National Leagues ended in defeat as Staines triumphed 46-15 at the Gables.

Westcliff ran away with the London One North title last term, losing just one game all season.

But they now know things will be much tougher this term, according to the club’s director of rugby Bob Smith.

"We knew it would be hard and that we would have to learn lessons and we have done here,” said Smith.

“We are going to be playing against much better teams this season but we had several players missing for this match and we do still feel our team has the potential to play at this level.”

Westcliff showed their skills early on and opened the scoring with a penalty from Ben McKeith.

However, without their influential skipper Simon Jones who was out with a knee injury and several other players, Westcliff had to spend a lot of time defending and Staines gradually worked their way in to the game.

Two quick tries, one of which was converted, put the visitors 12-3 up and soon that was 19-3 as they continued to impress.

At the start of the second half, Staines forced their way upfield and bagged an unconverted try made it 24-3.

But Westcliff then hit back with a magnificent try of their own.

The move started in their own half and was finished off by Seb Reynolds who raced 70 metres to score out on the right.

The conversion was just off target but, from the restart, Westcliff failed to clear the ball and Staines took full advantage to extend their lead to 29-8 with another try.

Staines opened up with some powerful running and took their score on to 46.

However, Westcliff again showed the form that took them to the title last year when Elliott Harvey zipped through for a try without a hand being laid on him.

McKeith's conversion rounded off the scoring but Westcliff were unable to get back in to the game and they will now be hoping for more when they host Gravesend this weekend.

Westcliff: Reynolds, O'Brien, Cosgrove, Harvey, Dudman, McKeith, O'Sullivan, Strachan, Whiting, Binneman, Dartnell, Barnett, Smith, Levy, Meakin.