Dings picked up a much-needed win against fellow strugglers Hertford, in a tense and edgy contest at Landseer Avenue. And, although the home side were not at their best, captain Stean Williams believe that the victory was just the tonic his men needed going into the second half of their National Two South campaign.

He said: "We know that we can perform a lot better than we did today, but a wins a win! It would have been nice to pick up a bonus-point and to deny them anything in defeat, but, first and foremost, we needed to get that 'W' today.

"I though our defence was good today, although, we did give away too many penalties, which is something we'll need to work on.

"Today wasn't about playing pretty rugby - we're just pleased to get the victory, and hopefully, we can build from here."

The home side were good value for their win, outscoring their opponents by three tries to nil, but they allowed the visitors to cling onto their coat tails by giving away an alarming amount of penalties.

And, the home side got on the wrong side of referee Jean-Marie Bunel, as he brandished yellow cards to lock Buster Lawrence, flanker Stean Williams and No8 James Luck, for a variety of offences at close quarters.

The visitors took a six-nil lead with two quick-fire penalties from fly-half Olly Forrester. Crusaders hit back on 14 minutes with a try from Sam Caven. The winger ran over the top of his marker to score in the corner after full-back James Oakley's well-timed pass put the Dings speedster into space.

Dings fly-half Mitch Burton, who was making his first appearance in the number ten shirt for Dings since January following injury, added the touch-line conversion to make it 7-6.

The Bristol side continued to pile on the pressure, with scrum-half Steve Plummer capitalising on some flimsy defence around the fringes, to scamper in under the posts, allowing Burton the easiest of conversions.

But the home side's continual ill discipline at the breakdown allowed Forrester pulled three points back on the stroke of half time to keep Hertford in the hunt. The second half was a stop - start affair, with neither team able to assert any real dominance over the other.

Dings picked up their third try on 68-minutes when, after a sustained forward attack - skipper Williams was worked clear to plunge into the corner for an unconverted try.

But the visitors picked up a valuable losing bonus-point when replacement Rob McPherson-Smith slotted 71st-minute penalty.

Hertford Match Program