Hampstead Ladies’ first team were beaten 14-7 by Beckenham in Women’s Championship South East Two and dropped from third to fourth place, despite scoring the opening try through Lilly Hunt.

The conditions were surprisingly good despite the cold and Hampstead came out fighting from the beginning.

Beckenham were strong in the breakdown, putting early pressure on in the rucks and gaining turnovers for their hard work. However, Hampstead were first to put points on the board with a signature backs move completed by Hunt, and captain Fran Hall added the conversion.

Things turned against the visitors when a yellow card was dished out to one of their players, leaving them a player down and five metres from their own try-line just before the break - but Hampstead held out and finished the half 7-0 up.

During the interval the referee warned both sides about penalties at the breakdown. And, although Beckenham were first to give away such a penalty - coming in at the side - it was Hampstead who were penalised with another yellow card for not rolling.

This came just as their previous player was released from the sin-bin, leaving the away team with just seven players in the scrum for another 10 minutes.

Despite that, the forwards still dominated. But Beckenham were able to find gaps on two occasions and capitalised to score two converted tries which won the game.

Number eight Kella Kapnisi was given the forward of the match accolade for her persistent work and Anita Oliver got the honour from the backs as she stepped in as centre and excelled in attack and defence.