Henley Hawks led for over an hour in Saturday’s game at Clifton before conceding three tries in nine minutes to go down 31-20 in National 3 South.

The scoreline was not a true reflection of the game as Hawks could well have won had they taken their chances in the first half.

They were 13-5 up at half-time and held the lead until the 62nd minute when Clifton found another gear and ran away with it.

The opening exchanges were scrappy, with unforced errors coming from both sides before winger Bob Viol put Clifton ahead with a try.

Hawks hit back with Paul Trendell kicking two penalties. He missed three others in the first half, but converted Tom Stradwick’s try under the posts.

Full back David Rees replied with a try converted by Pierce Clark and Clifton later turned the screw with two quick tries by Oliver Succo.

In between, replacement Jack Martin was forced over from a maul. Clark converted twice, before Hawks had the last word by finally showing the inclination to move the ball when Danny Wells ran in from 30 metre to score under the posts for Trendell to convert