HESSLE went down to a 28-12 home defeat after producing a patchy performance against fellow strugglers Old Modernians at Livingstone Road in a game that remained scoreless until the 38th minute.

Modernians dominated the first quarter as they played some enterprising rugby, but they failed with two penalty goal attempts in the swirling wind.

Hessle, with Ashley Hedges, Josh Moore and Carl Dixon showing up well as the hosts attacked, also experienced problems with the wind as twice Mike Melhuish kicked the ball over the in-goal area when attempting to find touch near the corner from penalties.

Paul Barwick got over the visitors' line but was unable to ground the ball and Joe Colville stormed into the 22, but was stopped by a well-timed tackle.

The deadlock was broken when, following a break on the left by Modernians, play moved across field and centre Dan Hill strode through a gap to race 30 yards for a try, converted by Jez Howarth.

The first action of the second half saw a Hessle clearance kick taken near halfway by left winger Matt Stone who made light of some poor tackling to gallop 50 yards along the touchline for the second touchdown.

This score appeared to stun Hessle, who fell further behind when Melhuish was sin-binned for a late tackle and Howarth landed the penalty to make it 15-0.

Modernians then scored another try in the corner, which went unconverted.

After 62 minutes Hessle, inspired by strong running from Mike Ayers and Hedges, worked their way up to the visitors' line with some flowing rugby and Lee Evans powered over for a try, goaled by Dixon.

A Stone score and Howarth penalty made it 28-7 before Melhuish took advantage of a dropped Modernians pass to touch down.