Two late tries by Hornets gave them victory over Dings Crusaders, whose pack dominated for 70 minutes.

Hornets 42 pts

Dings Crusaders 34 pts

HORNETS entertained Dings Crusaders at The Nest and despite the Dings pack dominating for 70 minutes, Hornets ran out winners to register an impressive win.

Dings started well and their pack spent the early part of the match giving Hornets an education. From the start, Hornets showed a lack of experience and again dropped the kick off. This let Dings into the game early and their forwards formed an early maul and drove over for the opening try.

Hornets conceded a try for a high tackle, Dings kicked to touch and again the pack drove over and Hornets were trailing 0-12.

With the home side needing to establish a footing in the game, they had a stroke of luck with Dings conceding a penalty and Jermaine Jones slotted three points.

From the restart, Dings over-kicked and Hornets won a penalty at the scrum. The ball was moved to Jones who burst through, offloaded to Carter to score.

Dings responded with a penalty and a try and a further exchange of penalties left the visitors leading 11-20 at half-time.

Dings started the second half where they left off and their pack drove over for their bonus point try.

At this point, Hornets were struggling and the game was becoming more physical as Dings looked to press home their advantage and at the same time run down the clock at every opportunity.

During the next 10 minutes the game saw four yellow cards, two from each side, and this proved the turning point. Hallett scored from a line-out for Hornets and Dings struck back to lead 16-34.

However, Dings were now looking tired and seemed to lack back up from the bench and the young Hornets side sensed that they still had a chance.

With the pack wrestling their way into the game, the Hornets backs started moving the ball wide and Dings were suddenly looking tired.

Joe Gadd, who has been switched from full-back to centre, was dominant in midfield and scored two tries either side of Rob Dempsey’s score to change the tide.

With Hornets back in the game at 30-34 with less than 10 minutes left, they sensed a victory was still possible. Jones took a turnover ball and burst out of defence. He fed ex-Dings player Dempsey, who weaved his way from halfway to score under the posts.

Hornets rammed home their advantage when Jones again broke the line and offloaded to Craig Nichols, who outsprinted the defence from the Hornets 10-metre lime to score in the corner and confirm an impressive 42-34 win for the home side.