WESTCLIFF stayed bottom of the Regional One South East standings after a 32-19 defeat at Hertford.

Westcliff had been hoping to build on an impressive 47-36 win against Tring last time out but were unable to see off their relegation rivals.

And head coach Jimmy Rea felt the defeat was down to a variety of reasons.

“We were struggling with players in key positions,” said Rea.

“We had an 87 per cent successive tackle rate last week down to 75 per cent this week and we didn’t take our chances when we got them.”

Hertford’s win took them up to ninth in the standings while Westcliff are now six points behind second from bottom Rochford Hundred.