Hendon progressed to the quarter-finals of the Middlesex Vase after coming from behind to beat Millfield Old Boys 40-21 in a rollercoaster encounter.

The Dons found themselves 21-14 down midway through the second half – but Jeff McVitty, Harry Charles, Donal O’Sullivan and Chris Kayingi all touched down in the final 20 minutes to secure victory by 19 points and book a last-eight tie away against Old Millhillians on February 27.

Hendon coach John Casalaspro said: “With many members of the first team not available, it has been very useful to look at some talented second-team players for the next league match away to Saracens this Saturday.”

Hendon were facing a strong wind in the first half at Harrow RFC but they opened the scoring after 25 minutes when a back-line move was finished off by Arwel Roberts, with captain Cian Hynes adding the conversion.

Millfield responded, though, pushing back into the Dons’ 22 and scoring a converted try of their own to tie the game at 7-7.

The elements favoured Hendon after the break and Hynes collected the ball from a scrum and pushed through two defenders before adding the extras himself.

But Millfield hit back again with a converted try down the right wing, and they repeated the feat minutes later with a run down the other flank to go seven points up.

From then on it was all Hendon, however. Winger McVitty scored out wide from the restart, with Hynes converting to level the scores once again – and man of the match Charles then went over from a scrum to put his side 26-21 ahead.

Millfield were tiring and, with 10 minutes left, Charles crashed through before passing to O’Sullivan, whose try was converted by Hynes, while wing Kayingi ran in from 30 metres out to record a final converted score.