A breakaway try in the final minute proved Welwyn's undoing as they suffered a defeat at home to Chiswick.

The two evenly-matched sides had traded tries throughout the Counties One Herts Middlesex contest and looked set for a draw until a try ran in over 70 metres gave the visitors to Hobbs Way a 26-21 success.

Welwyn had started brightly and opened the scoring when skipper Josh Milton broke through two tackles to touch down in the corner.

Brendon Marume converted from the touchline to give the hosts a 7-0 lead but it only lasted five minutes as Chiswick's Oliver Snook cut through the middle of Welwyn’s defence to score close to the posts.

Welwyn declined two kickable penalties but were rewarded with an excellent try on the half hour.

Impressive centre Marume made a lovely break and fed powerful winger, Alex Omole, who stepped inside the covering tackler and showed a great turn of pace to score by the posts.

Marume again added the extras and Welwyn led 14-7 at half time.

Their lead was short-lived again, Chiswick executing a set move from the base of a scrum six minutes into the second period and after a yellow card to each side in separate incidents, Chiswick took the lead from a tap and go penalty from 10 metres out.

This time Welwyn equalised immediately, Marume putting Milton into space who made full use of his pace and power to score close to the posts.

Will Latham's conversion locked the sides together again with 25 minutes to go and neither looked like adding to their score until the final late drama.