Twickenham 42 Old Verulamians 24 When these two sides met earlier in the season, the game ended in an astounding 37-37 draw. This match was even more extraordinary, as Twickenham piled on the points only after being reduced to 14 men, writes John Samuels.

With the scores level at 17-17 in the second half, T's were reduced to 14 men, but this galvanized them into a superlative performance that saw them scoring no less than eight tries to Old Verulamians' three.

The visitors opened the scoring with a long-range penalty followed by a forwards try from a rolling maul that put them into a 0-10 lead. T's replied with a lovely try from Andy Mullins, playing at fly half for T's for the first time, that was created by a break from captain Joe Foley, winger Leon John converting from out wide.

T's took the lead when Mullins scored again and John's conversion was ruled successful by one touch judge but over-ruled by the referee to make the score 12-10. Before the interval Verulamians scored a converted try and the home side replied with an unconverted score following a solo effort on the wing by John to make it 17 apiece at the turnaround.

The opening of the second half was marred by an unfortunate incident. The large Verulamians No 5 threw several unprovoked punches at the Twickenham scrum half Jim Peters. Winger Ewan Ferguson, rather stupidly, went to the aid of his team-mate and alas the referee saw only the later stages of the conflict and had little choice but to give Ferguson a red card, leaving the initial culprit to go unpunished.

Down to 14 men, T's were galvanized by the injustice and let the visitors have the full vent of their wrath. Despite their numerical superiority Verulamians were swept aside and T's ran in five tries. A third try and hat-trick for Mullins, a try for full back Jon Taylor and one for centre Joe Foley were all efforts that would normally have had grabbed the headlines.

However, they paled against the two tries for the extremely talented Bruce Guyett. The Twickenham centre made the running in both cases from deep inside his own half, once with a kick ahead and once with a mesmerising swerve, for tries that will remain long in the spectators' memories.

T's could not convert any of these efforts and the remaining score went to Verulamians after T's had made three substitutions. This outstanding performance ensures Twickenham's survival in London 2 North and with four fixtures left they have ambitions of taking fifth place in the league.

Twickenham: Taylor, John, Foley, Guyett, Ferguson, Mullins, Peters (Clissold 65), Burt, Tytherleigh, Nicholson (Johnson 65), Goff, Walker, Kirby, Stewart (Howden 50), Parillon.