Haywards Heath played out their National League dreams for 40 minutes, then harsh reality kicked in.

Heath raced into a 20-0 half-time lead at home to Tabard in their division three south debut on Saturday before going down to a numbing 22-20 defeat.

It was their first home reverse for 19 months and gives skipper Alex Meredith and his men plenty to think about as they tackle the most demanding season in the club's history.

Heath were sparkling for half an hour, going ahead after just 55 seconds through the first of Mark Pymm's two tries.

Visiting full back James Drew, however, went over himself six minutes after the restart, then really set alarm bells ringing when he sent Simon Valentine through eight minutes later as the home defence disintegrated.

Rob Colborne added a conversion to his 43rd-minute penalty and suddenly it was 20-15.

Then, after Jon Groenen had missed a penalty chance and Henry Goodburn been stopped in the corner, Tabard struck the killer blow.

It came from a close range lineout with nine minutes remaining, hooker Mark Sharp being driven over and Colborne adding the conversion.

Heath could still have nicked it as Pymm and Nick Stocker failed to finish a kick and chase.

Skipper Meredith admitted: "It's a big disappointment for the club but it's how we move forward and take the first 40 minutes into next week. We played the best 40 minutes we have played for a year or two.

"We closed up their back row the way we wanted to and created the gaps out wide, where the points came from.

"In the second half though we seemed to be lacklustre, we had too many turnovers and didn't consolidate."

It may still be an amateur sport for Heath but they looked a million dollars in that opening half and Groenen, a summer signing from Eastbourne, was heavily involved in Pymm's first and ninth-minute tries.

Rick Ure claimed plenty of lineout ball, Goodburn joined attacks from the blindside wing and Andrew Cook supported from full back as everything went right.

Groenen added a penalty, gave a scoring pass to Cook which was ruled forward and also converted a slightly contentious try by Meredith.

Jon Graham's off-load looked forward but referee Mike Vernon saw the ball had come off a Tabard leg and, as the visitors waited for a whistle, Meredith charged through to touch down.

At 20-0 up with 24 minutes played, Heath could have been taking on one of the many regional league sides they have torn to shreds in the last few years.

This is a different world though and Meredith knows it.

He said: "At half-time people were saying we would get 40 or 50 but let's just get the win. We've learned a valuable lesson."

Heath: Cook (Griffin 52), Pymm, Groenen, Stocker, Goodburn, Graham, Meredith; Bauer, Denslow, Edwards (Ross 58), Ure, Dinsdale (Vander 74), DeGruchy, Rankin, Lyall.