DAN Ap Dafydd praised the 'heart' of his Bracknell RFC side after they secured a vital 12-10 victory at Drybrook in their South West Premier clash on Saturday.

The Lily Hill men's head of rugby was delighted with the victory, which lifted them out of the bottom three.

He said: “I felt the whole squad showed the heart we needed to win. Our defensive work was excellent all game, but especially in the final 20 minutes."

The home side suffered an early setback when fly-half Tim Stevenson was forced off with a hand injury after five minutes, but they responded by taking the lead at the end of the first quarter, full-back Bradley Morgan cutting a beautiful line before crossing the whitewash.

Four minutes later it looked as though Drybrook had doubled their lead when from a scrum on their own 10-metre line, the ball was given to Sam Peaper who made a good break up the centre of the park.

His pass found Olly Moore on the wing who chipped ahead for the supporting Morgan to follow up and touch down, the referee, however, adjudged the ball to have been knocked on before the grounding and Bracknell were able to clear the ball to safety from the resulting scrum.

With under five minutes left on the first-half clock an off-the-ball altercation saw Bracknell's Ken Dowling sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes and Peaper sent off for a punch.

From the resultant penalty Bracknell had countless attacking phases in the Drybrook 22 before Gabe Hills broke a tackle to touch down.

Vic Hardwicke slotted the conversion to give Bracknell the lead 7-5 at half-time.

With a quarter-of-an-hour of the second half gone, Drybrook were further reduced in numbers, loose-head prop Mitch Hale being shown a yellow card for dissent.

With the Drybrook further pack reduced in numbers, Bracknell won a scrum against the head, Hills taking full advantage to dot down for his brace.

Hardwicke could not add the extras from out wide, but his side led 12-5.

The return of Hale saw Drybrook rally, however, and replacement prop Ethan Seville barged over for his side's second score, only for the conversion to be missed.

The hosts continued to hammer away at the Bracknell line during the final quarter, but a heroic defensive effort repelled Drybrook.

Bracknell host Exeter University this coming Saturday.