Playing on the Close with the College buildings as a inspirational back cloth should have been the stage for a thrilling game of rugby but sadly it was not to be.

The visitors had the better of the early exchanges as they showed their tactics of running the ball at every opportunity with centre Sam Winter to the fore.

The home side came into the game with some powerful scrummaging and strong running from full Will Pomphrey.

The visitors defended desperately and flanker Steve Ball paid an early visit to the sin bin.

Clifton almost immediately took advantage of their extra man when hooker Paul Fincken drove over from a maul with fly half Charlie Foley converting.

The home side continued at the same intensity until the game was stopped after a quarter an hour when visiting No 8 Charlie Kingdom suffered a hip dislocation.

Thankfully this injury was not as serious feared as the hip spontaneously relocated and a scan showed no fractures and it was hoped he could travel home yesterday morning.

The game was delayed for 16 minutes with an air ambulance being called.

When the game re-started Clifton had lost their intensity and the visitors through their hard running backs put the home side under pressure.

They elected to ignore penalty opportunities instead kicking to the corners. On one occasion they failed to make a clean catch at a 5 metre line out but prop Sean Edwards gathered the ball to plunge over with wing Joe Clarke converting.

Clifton came back through their forwards and they put the visitors under intense pressure and eventually the reward came when winger Sam Smith darted over from close range close to the posts for a converted try.

Lock Ben Purcell set up the opportunity for the final Clifton try at the end of the half when his powerful surge took play to the posts and scrum half Greg Nich0lls pop pass put Fincken over with Foley converting.

Foley wasted a golden opportunity when at the start of the second half he pushed what appeared to be a straight forward penalty just wide of the posts.

This appeared to be the start of the decline with the scrummaging supremacy vanishing and a number of penalties being awarded by the referee against their pack.

The visitors continued with their attractive open rugby moving the ball across the pitch with Winter to the fore.

Suddenly gaps began to appear in Clifton defence and when flanker Tom O’Keeffe was sent to the bin they conceded a try when the visitors moved the ball wide from a scrum and replacement Ross Bird crossing wide out.

They kept the home side under pressure and it was no surprise when Ball made a surge before linking with full back Nick Hankin who put flanker Richard Gill over. Replacement fly half Sam Colemas narrowed the gap to two points with his conversion going over off the posts.

With 5 minutes remaining the resolve Clifton’s defence and they were unlucky not to score a bonus point when with a couple of minutes remaining after some creative back play Pomphrey dived into the corner only for the final pass to be ruled forward.