Sussex Merlins rounded off an emotional day with a resounding 14-try romp as they ran out 68-28 winners over the Oxford Cavaliers.

Before the game the club held a minute's silence in memory of David Fry, father of Merlins player Andy, who died suddenly this week.

Assistant coach Jack Newton, who scored a second half hat-trick, said, "I grew up with Andy Fry and knew his dad well, that result today was for them both.”

"We talked at training in the week as to what we wanted to do as a club and how best to show our support for the family.”

"David would have loved that game and with Andy being such a big part of what we do we wanted to show what the Merlins are about."

The Hove outfit got off to a flying start with centre Chris Meddings pouncing on a loose ball to open the scoring.

This was to be the story of the game as Oxford failed to cope with some expansive and free-flowing attacking rugby.

Stand-off Kieran Robertson grabbed two tries, the first after scything through the middle of the park to score under the posts and the second from a smart inside pass from John Ferguson.

Oxford hit back but Merlins closed the half with scores from Ben Messmer and Guy Schooley to take a 28-12 interval lead.

Newton grabbed his hat-trick in the second half and forwards Lee Preston and Neil Lester Card got in on the act as Merlins ran in 40 second half points.

Next up are high fliers Guildford who travel to Hove Rec on Saturday.