Rosslyn Park number eight Hugo Ellis has stormed ahead of team-mate Nev Edwards in the try-scoring stakes after a remarkable thrashing of Cambridge.

Ellis hauled in seven National League One tries as Park rewrote the record books to smash Cambridge 104-5.

Charlie Broughton helped himself to four tries, while Matt Heeks, Harry Rowland, Dom Shabbo, Luke Campbell and Craig McGrath helped themselves to scores. Sam Katz had a field day kicking 24 points.

Ellis and Edwards have been ribbing each other over who will finish as the club’s top try scorer – and going into Saturday’s game the pair were level pegging.

“Nev and I are having a sort of try-scoring battle and we’d scored 12 tries each before Saturday and then I got seven and Nev, unbelievably, did not get any so I think he was not too pleased despite the result,” the former Wasps star said.

Edwards said: “I am tragically disappointed that Hugo got so many tries. But I was playing full back and I was the one making the final pass to set up the tries. I just could not get over the line however hard I tried.

“All I will say is that Hugo’s tries probably took a total of 10 yards to make, and I will be back.”

“I started to feel a bit for Cambridge towards the end. We were 57-0 ahead at half-time and in the end it was a just one-way traffic.

“But the boys played really well, we had lost the previous weekend so it was a good way to bounce back and get some confidence back.

He added: “We had to get the maximum five points to keep in touch with Ealing and Blaydon, but there is still 12 games to go so as long as we keep winning, we’re right on their tail should they lose a couple of games.

“We said at half-time we wanted to put a real three-figure score on the board so when Ealing look at the result it sends out an emphatic message that we’re not finished in the league just yet.

“They need to look over their shoulders because if they slip up, we’re coming.

"In this league, anyone is capable of beating anyone else and so we confident we'll get a chance, but we’re under no illusions that we need to win most, if not all of our remaining games, but that is not impossible.”

Despite the emphatic win, Park remain 12 points behind leaders Ealing, and five points behind second-placed Blaydon.

Ellis has missed just one game this season – the defeat to Cinderford – meaning the 24-year-old is getting plenty of action.

He said: “It makes a change for me to be playing week in, week out – I was at the New Gwent Dragons and Wasps for four years where I was in and out of the team.

“There are a lot of good teams at National One level. The physicality is maybe not the same as in the Premiership, but at this level it is more free-flowing as teams like to chuck the ball about a bit more whereas the Premiership can become a war of attrition.

“And we have a very squad. There are a lot of guys here who could easily make the step up to at least the level above.

“Hopefully we can keep the group of players together and keep some pressure on Ealing, and with our talented group of players I can see us winning the league, be it this season or next season.”

Edwards added: "The Cambridge players said afterwards that we were the best side they had faced, but we have to keep winning and keep the pressure on the top two.

"It is in their hands to lose, we just need to be ready to pounce."