DAN Barnes touched down for a hat-trick of tries to help Henley Hawks to a 40-35 win at Clifton in National 2 South.

However, his side were forced to battle hard for victory against opponents who played more than half the game a man down when losing two props, resulting in uncontested scrums.

A slow start from the visitors saw them trail 21-5, Barnes scoring the first of his three tries.

However, Henley then stormed back to notch 28 unanswered points, trailing 21-19 at half-time before quickly moving 33-21 ahead.

Dave Manning, Sam Lunnon, Barnes, Alex Bradley scored, Ben Bolster converting all.

Clifton cut the deficit to five points, but Barnes completed his treble, Bolster again kicking the extra points, to clinch victory, despite the hosts crossing again late on.

Chinnor fell to a 38-31 defeat at Rosslyn Park in National League 1.

Early tries from Ed Hoadley and Tom Jubb, both converted by Bertie Hopkin, gave the visitors a 14-0 lead.

But the hosts, third in the table, suddenly started to gel and hit back to lead 24-14 just before half-time.

A Hopkin penalty cut the gap to seven points, only for Rosslyn Park to score early in the second half to leave Chinnor with plenty of work to do.

Jubb finished off a fine move to give them hope, and the successful conversion made it 31-24 as the game entered the latter stages.

But once again it was the hosts who scored the all-important next try to all but seal victory.

Reon Joesph gave Chinnor some hope with a late converted try, but despite the visitors throwing everything at their rivals in the closing minutes, they were unable to find another score and slipped to a narrow defeat.