Definitely a game of two halves where the slope of the pitch and the flow of the wind looked to give the team playing downhill some benefit. As such playing up the slope in the first half, the hosts looked to be out of sorts for a while, as Havant started well and piled on the pressure. Our interplay looked confident and passes were largely sticking, our field position was generally in their half and their attacks were largely being met with robust defence - the highlight being the effectiveness of our scramble defence, where despite a pacy Dorking backline looking for every opportunity and presenting a real threat, some crucial Havant try saving tackles kept the game nicely in balance. Generating two well worked first half tries was no fluke but somewhat unexpected, while the denial of our 3rd try was a real shame (apparently the Ref took offence to some tit-for-tat shirt pulling and disallowed the try). The failure to get the 3rd try subsequently created a slight shift in the game momentum, and gave Dorking a better chance to consolidate and get themselves back into the game before half time, subsequently creating momentum enough to break through our defensive lines and get themselves a converted try before half time.

Half-time Dorking 7 Havant 12

Second half was very different, in all truth we probably fell off our first half pace and intensity, while Dorking seemed to step up a gear. The pitch at Dorking is probably the widest we play on and when playing down the slope they generally looked to spread the ball wide at every opportunity to give their pacy back three a real go at us in space. Sure enough once they had established their momentum it wasnt long before they began stretching the defence and generating some quick scores. The speed and ease with which they achieved that probably highlighted an indication of their league potential and what was to come for the rest of the half. While we certainly remained in the game, we were definitely on the back foot and were having to be reactive to the increasing Dorking pressure. Our solid first half attacking presence was now largely put on hold, as Dorking had much of the ball and were happy to play down the slope with the wind into the corner. As the scoreline started to build, so the Dorking freedom of play improved, and to some extent our heads went down and body language started to look flat. Despite the scoreline deficit, on '78 it was nice to see we were able to generate some flow and developed a series of phases up in the red zone and finally were able to get it to the overlap, where Dylan Read dived over for try number 3. A quick rushed conversion attempt as we were now looking to grab a 4th try for the BP. As it was, it really wasn't necessary - both Colchester and Worthing had lost today, so in effect we are now safe and clear of the bottom two and will remain in the National League next season.

Full time Dorking 43 Havant 17

Head coach Will Knight's thoughts
"Not the result we wanted and disappointing after a great first half that we fell away. However, the outcome of the day with the club maintaining Nat 2 rugby is huge. I actually think that it is a bigger achievement than getting promoted in the first place especially with the challenges we have weathered this season."