Uckfield out of Vase after tough battle

Uckfield started the brighter and took control of the opening exchanges and the pressure paid off as they took the lead on 15 minutes.

With Billericay struggling to escape their own 22, Uckfield moved the ball quickly from right to left across the pitch where hooker, Bradley drew his man to pop to prop Woods, who found space out wide to breach the defence and touch down for a 5-0 advantage.

This sparked the visitors into life as they found their feet which led to a spell of play in the Uckfield half which was rewarded when a excellent interchange between forwards and backs created an opening for their centre to score in the corner and level at 5-5.

Uckfield took the game straight back to Billercay with a period of intense pressure that saw flanker Harle almost break clean through from the halfway line. However, some good defence by the visitors kept Uckfield at bay.

Uckfield eventually regained the lead at 8-5 through a penalty converted by full back Douse but Billericay hit back with a sucker punch on the stroke of half-time. A combination of good hands and quick recycling allowed Billercay to break the Uckfield defence and score, regaining the lead.

Billercay would have been happy with the 8-10 half-time lead after Uckfield had controlled most of the first half. However, the lead was shortlived as Uckfield won a penalty in front of the posts shortly after the interval which Douse converted to give his team an 11-10 advantage.

With the tension rising, Billericay went ahead again through a penalty.

Billericay finally struck a telling blow as one of their earlier replacements came off the bench to break two tackles and dive over to make it 11-18. By this stage Uckfield were struggling to contain Billericay's commanding forwards especially in the maul. This was underlined as one of the Billercay front row touched down from a driving maul.

Uckfield refused to lie down and reduced the deficit to 16-23 with a try from winger Damane, who gathered the ball after a grubber kick through on the right wing and beat his man to score in the corner. But Billericay had the last word as a penalty in front of the posts added three points from the last kick of the match.

Uckfield: Whitmarsh, Bradley, Woods, Funnel, Prescott (Billings 65), Logan (White 70), Harle, Ridley M., Outen, Gannon, Chappell, Keogh (Vesty 70), Cullingford, Damane, Douse.