Twickenham bucked the trend last weekend, and head of senior rugby Andy Rees could not be more delighted.

Historically the London Two North West league leaders make slow starts to a new year, however, Saturday’s 87-0 demolition of Hemel Hempstead suggested that is a thing of the past.

Skipper Richard Moses bagged five tries – passing the injured Dan Rose as the club’s leading points scorer – as Twickenham opened a 13-point gap at the top of the tree, although second-placed Old Priorians, the only team to have beaten Twickenham this season, have two games in hand.

Rees said: “The most pleasing aspect of the Hemel game was it was an 80-minute performance.

“Hemel never gave up and credit to them, but we were superb and it is especially satisfying as we’re normally sluggish after the Christmas break.

“We had a very good training session before the match and the lads are keen to push on for promotion.”

Rose’s knee injury – picked up in training – kept him out of the Hemel thumping and is likely to keep him out of tomorrow’s trip to St Albans.

“Chances are Dan would have filled his boots against Hemel, and he’ll be disappointed to miss St Albans,” added Rees.

“We’ll go there knowing we need to put on a performance to avoid a potential banana skin.”