PROLIFIC winger Gareth Kelly is delighted with the start he has made to the season – and he is hoping to fire Basingstoke to the London One South title with plenty more tries.

The 21-year-old has made a very impressive start to the campaign, scoring eight tries in his first six games.

It is a far cry from his first spell at the club a couple of years ago, when he left after just a handful of games, and Kelly is pleased he decided to return to Down Grange.

“I was at the club a couple of years ago and played a couple of games but I just did not enjoy it,” he explained. “With new coaches coming in I decided to give it another go and I am really glad I did because there’s a great buzz around the club.

“I certainly did not expect to make the start I have done, scoring so many tries, but it has gone really well. I did not really set myself any targets before the season started, I just wanted to play as well as I could. Now, having made such a good start, I want to get a try in as many games as possible.

“The level of rugby in London One South is okay, probably a bit lower than I expected, but it’s still a good level and I am happy with the way it is going. It’s not too tough but a testing level to play at.”

Despite his excellent start to the season, Kelly believes he can improve even more and he is working on a couple of things in training to better his game.

“I am not playing to 100 per cent of what I am capable of yet,” he said. “It’s getting better but there is more to come.

“My pace is definitely my main strength but there are a few things I am working on. My kicking is not great but I am focussing mainly on improving my tackling and decision making at the moment.”

One of Kelly’s most memorable tries came against Dover last weekend, the winger picking the ball up at a ruck on his own try-line before running the length of the field to touch down.

“I was pretty much on my own try line so I don’t think I’ll ever go on a longer run to score a try,” he said. “The ball just popped up to me so I picked it up and started running to see what would happen.

“There was only one player chasing me so at first I thought there must have been a whistle – but the coaches soon shouted at me to carry on running and I was able to go all the way. I was getting tired and the full-back nearly caught me so I was pleased to make it over the line and touch down.”

That try helped ’Stoke to a sixth successive victory at the start of the season – and Kelly believes the squad can go all the way and win the London One South title.

“I think we are capable of winning the league,” he said. “We’ll just have to see how things go but it has been really good so far this season. I’m not sure why exactly, but it’s a new team and we all get along pretty well, which certainly helps.”

Next up for Kelly and his team-mates is a trip to struggling Sutton and Epsom. One thing Basingstoke have not been able to do so far this season is pick up four-try bonus points on a regular basis and the winger admits that games such as Saturday’s are the sort of fixtures where they need to take advantage.

“We definitely need to start picking up bonus points,” he said. “We have not been able to get that many so far but we have to start putting four scores on teams. Hopefully that will start on Saturday and I can get a couple of tries.”