A young Verulamians side produced a battling display in a narrow 11-0 loss away to Saracens Amateurs in Herts Middlesex Division One.

Nine of the Vees' side were aged 22 or under but they gave as good as they got even if the more-experienced Sarries side enjoyed better fortunes in the set-pieces.

The visitors started with a lot of carries putting Saracens under pressure but the deserved try never materialised and gradually the home side started to crawl their way back into the game and they had a 3-0 lead by half-time.

That was doubled with the aid of the wind shortly after the resumption and an unconverted try ended the scoring.

Injuries to Tim Fretter and Joe Breeze hampered Verulamians just as they were starting to mount a comeback and the match finished with cards being shown to both sides for high tackles.

Vees are back at home on Saturday when league leaders Hendon are the visitors.