Hove won promotion today with a dramatic 17-16 victory over Old Reigatian in their London One South play-off.

Two late tries by Ryan Morlen and Carles Casanova, plus a first-half penalty and two nerveless conversions by fly-half Gareth Davies, saw London Two South East runners-up Hove edge out the visitors.

It looked as if Hove’s big day was going to end in disappointment up until the final ten minutes after Old Reigatian had worked a 16-3 lead with Gus Locke kicking three penalties and converting their 50th-minute try.

But the visitors had hooker and skipper George Wheeler sin-binned as the game headed into the last ten minutes after a Hove drive towards the line was thwarted illegally.

The resultant scrum saw Morlen released to burst over the line, with Davies slotting from wide on the left, before Casanova finished off an excellent break started down Hove’s right flank to bring the score to 16-15.

Davies kicked the extras with the 80 minutes almost up and Hove saw out the match to book their spot back in London One South for next term.

Hove skipper Martin Macdonald said: “They were a fantastic outfit and drilled us really hard.

“Sometimes we didn’t get on the right side of the referee but ultimately we pushed up to the last ten minutes and then came good.”