Haywards Heath at last have their first win of the season but only after surviving an early attack of the mid-season blues.

It certainly felt like the bleak mid-winter for stand-in skipper Jon Graham and his men as they gathered behind the posts early in the second half at bleak, rain-lashed Whitemans Green trailing 29-13 to a spirited but unimaginative South West One outfit from Cornwall.

At that time, they might have been tempted to look for every excuse going for their imminent exit from the Powergen Cup, from the conditions to their injury list, to the fact they had to play in their unlucky blue change kit.

Instead, they hit back with three sparkling tries, plus assured kicking from centre Elgan O'Donnell, to clinch a home tie with league rivals Tabard in the second round.

That, at least, was the most obvious prize for their comeback. Just as important were the lift of a win and the avoidance of a tough Saturday training session with Ian Davies.

The Heath coach admitted: "At one stage we were making such basic errors I thought 'Okay, we've got a free Saturday in a couple of weeks'.

"Only it wouldn't have been a free Saturday. I would have worked them even harder.

"But I thought the guys stuck at it, Jonny Graham kept everything calm and his decision-making was good and we were more streetwise up front."

The introduction of front row men Gordon Denslow and Darren Shadbolt and the switch from flanker to lock of under-rated Damien Lyall, who fared well in the lineout, provided the foundation for a strong comeback.

Wing Roscoe Atkins roused them with a superb finish and when O'Donnell, whose kicking had been erratic until then, converted from near touch, Heath sensed the comeback was on.

O'Donnell jinked and dummied his way to posts, converted it and edged his side in front before steely tackling thwarted a Penryn counter and worked the ball free for Cummings to plunge over.

Rousing stuff in weather which resembled mid-December, but not enough to really delight Davies.

He added: "We weren't very good, full stop. Luckily we had a stronger bench and in the end the score reflected the game. We didn't have a really good pre-season so we marked out the first three games as pre-season in effect. Now that's over, no excuses from here."

O'Donnell, a 25-year-old New Zealander from Invercargill who has also played in California, admitted a pep talk after falling behind was key to the comeback.

He said: "We made it hard for ourselves but we hung in there, had a bit of yarn about it and got our patterns rolling.

"We have been working on some new patterns the coach has been developing for us and it took us a while to put them together."

Heath had the edge in the scrum but their tackling was woeful as back row duo Tristan Lark and Ben Short and scrum half Dave Pascoe scored first-half tries for Penryn.

Pascoe was a particular thorn in the home side. He beat a series of tackles to score from 30 yards just after slick hands from O'Donnell and debut centre Nick Gandy had put Atkins in for his first try.

It was Pascoe, who also kicked superbly, whose second-half score stretched the lead to 29-13.

Two of the younger, more unsung Heath forwards in lock Brendan Crean and flanker James Arthur helped swing the momentum and the second try by Atkins, who has come up from the second team, was a winger's classic.

But it will take better than this to ease Heath up the National Three table.

Haywards Heath: Outen, Atkins, Gandy, O'Donnell, Pymm, Graham, Cummings; Sheppard (Shadbolt 52), Jenkins (Denslow 50), Sherwood (Nolan 76), Salisbury (Cockerton 50), Crean, Lyall, Rankin (Vander 70), Arthur.

Penryn: Instance, Vagie, Brown, Slater, Greville-Smith, Gregory, Pascoe; Keverne, Burns, Viliami, Doney, Hughes, Lark (Maynard 52), Short, Mann.