AFTER finishing fourth in their first season in London Two North, Chingford Rugby Club's first XV rounded off a successful campaign by embarking on a short tour of Cyprus.

With the trip taking in two games against local opposition, one man who grabbed the chance to impress was second row forward Lawrence Macrides, who has been invited back to represent the Cypriot national side when they take on Malta in September.

Basing themselves in the town of Paphos, Chingford kicked off the tour with a game against Akrotiri Flamingos, a side made up of servicemen from the UK and Fiji based at RAF Akrotiri.

The tourists took control of a fiery game and played some fantastic rugby at times to run out 44-0 winners. Tour captain John Williams scored three of the eight tries, and a post-game barbecue gave Chingford the chance to chat with the opposition and get the lowdown on their next challengers, Cypriot champions Paphos Tigers.

The Tigers were made up primarily of Cypriot internationals and were probably the biggest side Chingford have ever come up against. Paphos took the lead with a well-taken penalty before Chingford's fly-half Henry Bond levelled the scores with a penalty of his own just prior to half-time.

Chingford's superior fitness and athleticism began to show in the second half and Stephen Piper was next to score, taking the ball 20 yards out, dummying his man and sidestepping to the line.

Bond added the extras and another converted try from Steve Hollis took the final score to 17-3.

Macrides said of his international call-up: "It has always been a dream of mine to play international rugby so I am so proud to be asked to represent the country of my father. It's a great honour."

Hollis added: "We are all now looking forward to next season's campaign. We'll have a couple of weeks rest before we start to play touch-rugby throughout the Summer, then on July 17, it's the start of pre-season training.

"With the new additions to the squad I can see this being another good year for Chingford.

"Hopefully we can remain injury-free this year, after suffering some bad ones last season, and then push for promotion to London One."