Sussex's Twickenham dreams bit the dust as they crashed out of the inaugural County Championship Sevens.

Needing to beat Devon I to earn a trip to the hallowed turf for Saturday's semi-finals, they lost 17-15 and missed two conversions from in front of the posts, including one with the very last kick.

But this was less a repeat of Don Fox '68 and more a case of Geoff Hurst '66 as debates raged as to whether the ball had gone over or dropped short of its target.

Competition rules prohibit place kicks and Sussex were convinced Mark Pymm's miscued left-foot drop shot had cleared the crossbar.

The touch judges took a long look at each other, did not offer any sort of signal and, after waiting for an agonising couple of seconds, the referee blew his final whistle and Devon's shattered players cheered their good fortune.

Alex Meredith had earlier hooked a conversion wide as Sussex came from 12-0 down to make a real game of it through tries by Pymm, Dave Wattam and Giles Goodburn.

For skipper Gordon Denslow it was hard to take having helped Sussex win the South East qualifiers in brilliant style and moved to within sight, quite literally, of his first appearance at Twickenham.

His debate with the officials lasted almost as long as the match itself and he admitted: "It was very disappointing.

"I've got no complaints about losing if it is to a better team but I do have a complaint when it is because a debatable decision.

"The ref said he did not see if the ball went over and when the touch judge was asked if he was 100 per cent sure he said he wasn't.

"People behind the posts all said it was over and the key was the attitude of the Devon players."

A group of picnicking Gloucestershire supporters sitting behind the try line suddenly found themselves in the centre of the storm as they happily confirmed the ball had gone over.

But their evidence was never likely to impress RFU officials and Sussex were left to admit that they had not played anywhere near their potential.

Denslow admitted: "I've never seen this seven make so many mistakes. A lot of key players were quite nervous and we didn't do ourselves justice. That's really disappointing."

Sussex's superb recent form at Amsterdam, Henley and Rosslyn Park was forgotten as basic errors let in Chris Lowery and Nick Burt in the first four minutes.

Henry Goodburn was then ruled to have dropped the ball as he touched down between the posts, but alert work from Jon Graham sent in Pymm at the corner a minute later.

Andrew Cook's cleanly struck conversion drifted just wide and it was tempting to wonder how he would have fared with those second-half attempts had he not been taken off at the break.

Replacement Meredith produced the chip and chase which paved the way for Wattam to dot down under the sticks, only for Devon to produce a sucker punch two minutes from time through Andrew Williams from a close- range scurm.

In a final flourish, Denslow carved his way through the middle and Giles Goodburn added the finishing touch to seemingly set-up extra-time.

Devon I went on to reach the final while Sussex put their feet up either in the Twickenham stands or at The Triple Crown, a nearby pub.

It has been the longest season ever for the county's top players, but they would dearly have loved to have prolonged it by an hour or two in Saturday's sunshine.