Gordon Denslow has called on Sussex's bright young prospects to help the county go from strength to strength.

Skipper Denslow led Sussex to a thrilling 19-14 home over Hertfordshire at Crawley, clinching their second top-five finish in the Tetley's County Championship in the last three seasons.

It was a fitting way for head coach Andy Turner to bow out after helping revive the county's fortunes since 1999.

Denslow said: "It's fantastic to win two out of our three games this season and I want to pay tribute to (coaches) Andy Turner and Ian Davies and the management team who have brought Sussex rugby to prominence.

"We are in a position now where we have the platform to go on. We need our youngsters to come though, to play as high a standard of rugby as they can and help us push on from here."

One such prospect, London Welsh scrum half Ollie Boggis, grabbed the close-range score which saw Sussex change ends just 7-5 down after conceding an early penalty try which Justin Azzopardi converted.

They should have been ahead by then as recalled Worthing centre Terry Butler punched holes in the Herts defence.

Butler, though, settled the contest with two second-half tries, finishing off a searing break by Jon Graham, then running on to a short pass after great work by the pack.

Conversions by Jon Groenen and Alex Meredith gave Sussex insurance against a Chris Bayak score which Azzopardi goaled to set up a tense finale.