Hendon were on top at the interval but went to pieces after the break to lose this vital league encounter.

From the off Hendon's forward were totally dominant with 2nd row Luke McEnemy excelling from the 2nd row.

Errors from the Verulamian pack were punished by returning scrum 1/2 Ben Linale replacing his brother Lee who was unavailable.

On 20 minutes, Hendon were ahead by Ben's boot and seemed to be in control with angled moves from Hendon's back row of Mutuma, O'Regan and Curry.

Then, with five minutes to the break, Curry was sin-binned for a repeated technical offence and Verulamians found the overlap to score an unconverted try in the corner.

Still with only 14 on the field in the second half, Hendon were exposed almost immediately as Verulamians finished off a move under the posts to go 12-9 up.

Further problems for Hendon came when a front row injury forced off prop Paul Julian and, whilst Hendon were reorganising, Verulamians pushed Hendon back to score again in the corner.

A defensive mistake then gave the home outfit another easy try under the posts to convert for a 24-9 lead.

With 10 minutes to go, an injury to full-back Joe Haugie with all replacements used, meant there was no way back and another try was conceded to give Verulamians the result and bonus point.

Hendon travel to Old Actonians this Saturday.

Team: Haugie (J), Vincente, Connolly, Cremin, McManus, Blake, Linale, Julian (repl. Haugie.R), Towndrow (repl.Maskell), Gilbride, McEnemy, Doyle, Mutuma, Curry, O'Regan.