WESTCLIFF suffered a 52-16 defeat at Harpenden.

Westcliff had been hoping to build on their 55-32 win against Bedford Athletic last time out.

But head coach Jimmy Rea admitted his side were second best.

"It was a hard day at the office," said Rea.

"We didn’t get the start we wanted and didn’t play our style of rugby.

"Harpenden dominated the scrum which gave us one less platform to play from, although the line-out was decent.

"We tried to play too much out of our own 22.

"There were some notable performances from Jack Hogarth Alex Hatton and Joe Gutteridge but we were beaten by a bigger team."

And Westcliff will now have to wait a week before returning to action.

"The break is only welcome due to the three concussions we got and the injuries sustained over the last couple of weeks," said Rea.

"We will look at the things that can be changed easily."