Hampstead crushed a lacklustre Welwyn on Saturday, running out winners 36-0 after an emphatic second-half display.

The homeside were only five points to the good at half-time, largely due to an inability to protect the ball at the breakdown when threatening the Welwyn line.

That was an error that cost Hampstead dearly last time out but after 20 minutes Hampstead opened the scoring, Stefan Psota driving over from a ruck.

It was the first of two tries for the impressive lock forward, who was on the scoresheet again early in the second half.

A lineout from a terrific penalty kick to touch by fly-half Craig Harper allowed Hampstead to set up a rolling maul inside Welwyn's 22m line. Psota peeled off the back to dot down near the corner.

A second missed conversion meant the hosts led by just 10-0 but the afternoon was soon to get a lot worse for the visitors.

Welwyn lost a lineout on their own throw and Hampstead pulled play back and forth across the pitch, scrum-half Arthur Haynes went over for the home side's third try.

Ben Nichols, impressive on debut for the club, added the extras.

Three minutes later, outside centre Pete Bicknell weaved his way through a hapless Welwyn defence to dot down under the posts. Nichols slotted an easy conversion.

Hampstead's speed, power and precision were too much for Welwyn, whose rare incursions into Hampstead territory in the second half were robustly dealt with by a home defence led by Max Moncrieff.

Another trademark Bicknell break down the right hand side gave Hampstead a dangerous platform from which to threaten the Welwyn try line and Nichols threw a sweet dummy to break through the line to score under the posts. His conversion took the score to 31-0.

The agony was not yet over for a by now thoroughly demoralised Welwyn. Hampstead continued to attack with pace and vigour, throwing the ball from wing to wing in their best display of attacking rugby this season.

Haynes, who had changed position in a tactical switch in the latter stages of the match, rounded off a strong individual performance with a scintillating dash down the left wing to score in the corner.

Hampstead's six-try haul ensured the hosts secured a try bonus point and the win took them up to sixth in the table.