Herts young guns get the better of Sussex at Allianz Park

Following the comfortable win over Middlesex, when Herts took an early lead it looked as though it could be the same story.

However Sussex were made of sterner stuff and, led by a talented fly-half, they fought back and Herts only clinched the win in the closing minutes.

Centre Dan Roberts opened the scoring with a clean break after seven minutes and, soon afterwards, prop Josh Hewitt crossed the line.

With Myles Toon converting both tries, Herts were 14-0 up and looking good.

However, when Herts lost a player to the sin bin, Sussex quickly took advantage and put their right wing over for a try.

Then on the half hour Sussex too had a player in the bin and, within minutes, George Elliott made a clean break from full-back and scored under the posts to give Toon an easy conversion.

Just before half-time, Sussex closed the gap with a converted try by their fly-half and the score was 21–12 to Herts at the break.

Both sides made numerous changes at half-time, and Sussex were first to settle.

They scored an unconverted try within two minutes of the restart and then, 10 minutes later, took the lead with a converted try.

Midway through the half, No 8 Luke Mongston drove over the line to level the scores at 26-all.

Then, with less than 10 minutes left, Herts took the lead when prop Nick Gudgin was driven over the line and replacement fly-half Tom Dunn converted.

However, Sussex hit back with an unconverted try with less than five minute remaining and it need a last minute drop goal from replacement scrum-half Tom Ansell to make sure of victory by 36 points to 31.

Hertfordshire: George Elliott (Hertford); Stephen Cobb (Old Albanian), Daniel Roberts (Letchworth), Kellan MacDougall (Univ of Herts / Hertford), James Maher (Univ of Herts / Old Albanian); Myles Toon (Old Albanian), Ben Creasey (Hertford); Josh Hewitt (Old Albanian), Tom Blackwell (Letchworth), Nick Gudgin (Datchworth), Dominic Toon (Plymouth Univ / Saltash), Richard Cobb (Northampton Univ), Sam Tanton (Old Albanian), James Sonner (Ealing), Luke Mongston (Letchworth).

Replacements (all used): Jordan Cox (Univ of Herts), Drew Horne (Fullerians), Tom Webb (Univ of Herts), Kennett O’Neill (unattached), Lewis Dempsey (Old Albanian), Tom Ansell (Letchworth), Tom Dunn (Brunel University / Camberley), Simon Hrbek (Bedfordshire Uni / Letchworth),

Hertfordshire Scorers: Tries – Roberts (7 min), Hewitt (16 min), Elliott (32 min), Mongston (61 min), Gudgin (72 min); Conversions – Myles Toon (7 min, 16 min, 32 min), Dunn (72 min); Drop Goal - Ansell (80 min).