Haywards Heath passed the toughest fitness test of the lot to put their National Three South season back on course.

Heath beat Dings Crusaders 21-10 at Whitemans Green to help make up for two worrying defeats ahead of the Christmas break.

Skipper Alex Meredith revealed how his men had paid the price for easing off in training, then praised their work in keeping fit over the two-week festive break.

Adam Phillips and Jon Graham scored the tries to beat Dings, who responded with a converted score of their own with the last move of the match.

Meredith said: "The two defeats we had came from bad preparation.

"I'm not pointing the finger at anyone because we are not professionals and you can't force anyone to train but the numbers attending were disappointing.

"People are expected to attend though and to put in a lot of work in their own time.

"We had a good session last Monday and everybody seemed more focused on what we wanted to achieve.

"It had to get better because the two games before Christmas were appalling."

Meredith admitted Heath did not monitor their players' fitness.

The real test comes when ploughing through a heavy surface and gasping in cold air for 80 minutes on a Saturday.

Against Dings, Heath passed that test with flying colours.

No. 8 Glenn Rankin was one of the stars, his powerful runs leading to both tries.

Paul Flemming gave the long pass to send Phillips racing in at the corner after 20 minutes and Graham was in support to take Rankin's feed and run in from the 22 midway through the second period.

Owen Ashton kicked a conversion and three penalties.

Paul Finkin scored Dings' late try, with Waylon Gaskin converting to add to his drop goal, but Heath did well to keep the visitors out until then.

Meredith said: "There was a spell for ten minutes after half time when we were camped in our own 22 but we defended really well."