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Rosslyn Park head coach Jonathan Mills praised half-back pair Jack Gash and Oli Grove for their kicking which squeezed out Darlington Mowden Park.

Tom Vaughan-Edwards’ maul try decided a tight battle for the London side against DMP at the Northern Echo Arena.

Park found themselves 14-0 down after 10 minutes but tries from Arthur Ellis and Henry Cheeseman secured four points.

“It was a bit nerve-racking, especially after giving them a 14-point start,” Mills said

“We had 70 minutes to put it right. They’re a good outfit but we really went and met them.”

“But it showed a lot of character – the boys came up with the right attitude to get the win on the road.

“They were three on the bounce, so it was good to stop that.

“I think our set piece started to get domination. Gash and Grove really put us in the right areas.

“Some of their kicks today were thread through the needle and put pressure on the right places.

“We won the territory battle, they made errors and points came out way.”

DMP started quickly as Brandon Asher-Wood broke through, beating Henry Robinson to the corner five minutes in.

Park were nonplussed four minutes later as the full-back’s break fed Callum Mackenzie for the second try.

Seals, who sealed Park’s fate in the last two encounters, made long kicking look easy as he secured both conversions. But the visitors woke up on 17 minutes as a fast driving maul put Ellis over the line.

And 10 minutes of dominant breakdown play saw Dan Laventure break through the middle, Cheeseman slipping underneath for the equaliser. The visitors continued their momentum into the second half, camping out in DMP’s half.

And the rewards came on 49 minutes as Vaughan-Edwards line-out ended with a try scored by the forward.

DMP put pressure on Power’s men, though, when Seals kicked a penalty from the 22-metre line down the middle five minutes later.

The game came to a halt with nine minutes to go when Grove was knocked to the ground by George Stokes, seeing the flanker sin-binned.

After being stretchered off, the fly-half regained consciousness before being taken to hospital.

This resulted in a penalty on the 22-metre line which Holland secured easily, ending DMP’s three-match winning run.

DMP director of rugby Danny Brown said: “They’re always pretty close.

“I thought we started particularly well and worked hard to play some good stuff in the first 20 minutes.

“But from there we probably didn’t kick on when we had an opportunity to.

“We’d be the first to put our hands up for too many errors. They defended very well and we came off second best.

“But games aren’t won in 20 minutes – we didn’t get back to where we were in that period.

“The pressure came on from Park. We knew it would come at some point.

“Whether it was the odd knock-on, whether it was the pattern not being played through or forced errors, they frustrated us.

Charlie Bennett

Team (15-9/1-8): Brandon Asher-Wood 8; Aedan Moloney 6, Ollie Walker 7, Ben Dixon 7, Callum Mackenzie 7 (Garry Law 72 6); Warren Seals 8, Euan McKirdy 7; Ralph Appleby 6 (Tristan Grant 47 6), Joe Duffy 7 (David Nelson 40 7), Talite Vaioleti 6; Max Davies 5, Dave Fisher 7 (Dan Grange 57 7); Joe Craggs 8, George Stokes 6, Ollie Hodgson © 7

Replacements: Max Pepper

Rosslyn Park

Tries: Ellis A 17, Cheeseman 27, Vaughan-Edwards 49

Conversions: Holland 18, 28, 50

Penalties: Holland 71

Attendance: 1,000

Star Man: Oli Grove – Rosslyn Park

Chinnor preview

Park return to the Rock on November 9, seeing Craig Holland’s reunion with Chinnor, the side he became Nat 1 top-scorer with last season

They were pushed close against Canterbury to a 28-20 win which ended in a red-carding scuffle.

It was a close-run thing in March when the Oxfordshire side last visited he Rock but the boys won 38-31.

November 8, 2019