Sussex 38 - Hampshire 31

With matches still to play for Henley Hawks and Portsmouth this weekend, Hampshire faired well despite going into their final pre-Championship Shield fixture with Sussex with just 17 men at Worthing last night.

Minus all four of the Osman brothers and Portsmouth lock Russell Forster, as well as all the Jersey players through injury, Hampshire scored five tries but were sadly lacking in their tackling, which gifted Sussex their touchdowns.

It was not an easy night for coaches Simon Morgan and Roy Gittens, who were forced to play a winger in the centre and a scrum-half on the wing for both halves as they looked closely at Havant's Liam Davenport and Gosport & Fareham star man Jamie Daly.

A hat-trick for Derek Eldridge, the Petersfield captain, was followed by one apiece by Havant pair Nick Cooper and Nick Whittle, while Andrew Ashwin slotted three conversions against his old county teammates.

Morgan was fairly happy, despite the result. "Overall we did well, although I was disappointed that we struggled to make the first-up tackles, which let Sussex get away from us," he said.

"However, it was not all bad and I was pleased to see some good performances despite us only having 17 players here because of the games at the weekend."

The Hampshire team for the trip to Woodford on May 3 is likely to be difficult to select, but the coaches and management will settle down after next Tuesday's training sessions to finalise their choices.