Verulamians battled to a 15-8 win at Crusaders in the third round of the RFU Vase competition on Saturday.

As in previous weeks, Vees' forwards dominated the first half and ended up with a 10-0 lead at half time through a penalty from Gareth Waters and a converted try from a powerful rolling maul with Sam Crowne touching down.

With the wind helping the home team in the second half the Crusaders mounted sterner opposition and Vees once again found themselves having to strongly defend a slender lead.

Eventually their positive attitude caused nervy Vees to be penalised and one of their forwards was sin-binned. The converted penalty reduced their lead to 10-3 and Vees then conceded an unconverted try to set up a tense finale.

However with the team back to full strength Vees struck again after the scrum had taken a precious ball against the head. The half backs swiftly fed the ball to Tim Chase – Rangihuna who sped and slipped through the defence to seal the win.

Vees are at home in a Herts Middlesex One match with London French on Saturday.