Grasshoppers recorded their first win of the season thanks to a 10-6 victory at Hemel Hempstead, writes Ron Chapman.

Despite starting with a strong wind behind them, Gs slipped 3-0 behind to a penalty after six minutes but came back strongly with Brian Musoza stopped just short of the line.

However, strong defence stopped Gs from finding the elusive breakthrough and they missed two penalty scoring opportunities.

Hemel added to the punishment with a second penalty after 30 minutes while Zoran Higgins was yellow-carded for failing to release a tackled player on the ground.

The second half started with Hemel trying to press home their one-man advantage but Grasshoppers’ defence stood firm.

And, once restored to 15 men, Gs’ forwards provided some good ball for their backs to move play into the Hemel half.

It wasn’t until Hemel were reduced to 14 men for a yellow card offence after 65 minutes that Grasshoppers finally troubled the scoreboard.

Stuart Daniels kicked the resulting penalty to touch and from a good line-out catch and drive Gs stalwart Steve Refford was driven over to score a well deserved try, which went unconverted.

Grasshoppers continued to pour forward and were unlucky not to score again when Jason Robbins dived over the line from a 5m scrum only for the ball to fall from his hands as he attempted to touch down.

Gs continued to press forward and following an excellent move from their backs Matt Orishaguna collected a pass to use his pace and touch down in the corner after 76 minutes, to give Gs a 10-6 win.

Man of the match for Grasshoppers was Tom Woodhouse. They host Welwyn this Saturday (3pm).