The match was won through a combination of lineout and scrum dominance and pressure at the ruck which led to a large number of penalties for the visitors. Sam Trodd showed up well once more with his twinkle-toed movement and regular mini-breaks. He’s a really consistent performer. Jacob Knight’s return at inside centre provided real solidity in that area and Reuben Knight had his best game for Havant this season.

It didn’t look that way at the start as Havant had to contend with their usual bad start and a ‘Park’ side who took advantage of early defensive weakness to take a 21-0 lead. The first try came from a penalty kicked to the 5m line and a maul over the line, with Benjamin Charnock dropping to the ground with the ball, converted by fly-half Oscar Daniel. Shortly after, Colin Sisk was given a yellow card and, shortly after, the home side were over for their second, again through Charnock, again converted by Daniel, making it 14-0 on 9’. The restart went into touch, but Havant took the lineout through Ross Parkins, a pattern that was to continue for the rest of the game. Havant turned over the ball at the ensuing ruck and Westcombe Park’s backs evaded some weak tackling to run all the way from their own ‘22’ to touch down on the right, through prolific wing Jack Augnier. The kick was successful, making it 21-0 on 12’. However, Havant were starting to show some of the elements of their game that would engineer the win.

A good challenging restart was knocked on by the home side and a deceptively simple backs move, poorly defended, led to a score from Ben Chambers on the right after a kick-through by Reuben Knight. The kick was missed making it 21-5 on 15’. The try was against the run of play and the hosts were soon on the attack forcing a Havant penalty on their ‘22’. Another penalty was kicked to about 8m out but as per the earlier attacking lineout, Havant defended really well and were awarded a penalty for sealing off which fashioned their escape and impending dominance. It was an important moment.

Havant were showing good continuity at last and broke into the hosts’ half, where they conceded a penalty. Colin Sisk, now back on, took it quickly and forced another penalty for not retreating. Havant kicked for the corner and from the lineout, after a bit of ruck ‘crabbing’, Sam Vince touched down on the right. The kick was successful and the score now 21-12 after 20’. However, Havant had not quite turned the screw at this point. Playing too much rugby in their own half, they conceded a penalty which was kicked to the corner and the home forwards were able to get over the line through Charnock yet again to extend the lead out to 28-12 after 25’ after another successful Daniel conversion.

This was the point at which Havant scored seven unanswered tries. A good kick-through from Reuben Knight saw Ben Chambers pressuring his opposite number into touching down in his own in-goal area. From the 5m scrum, a beautiful long floated pass from Reuben Knight saw Sam Trodd score tidily in the corner. The conversion was missed. Now 28-17 on 28’. From the restart, Havant retrieved the ball but, after a good half-break from Sam Trodd, they were penalised at the ruck for holding on. Sam Vince stole the lineout after the hosts had kicked the penalty to touch. Having were penalised again, and once more the lineout was taken by Havant (possibly Ross Parkins). After a second lovely kick-through from Reuben Knight, a Havant player was high-tackled with a yellow card handed to Park’s Chris Aroyehun. The penalty was kicked out and although the side didn’t get over this time a scrum gave Colin Sisk and then Reuben Knight the time to put Dylan Evans through a huge hole in the home side’s defence. The kick was missed once more, making it 28-22 on 37’.

In what seemed like an inordinately long half, Havant had another score in them. A knock-on from Westcombe Park was handled in an offside position and again Reuben Knight had the chance to kick for the corner. From 14m out a second Westcombe Park player was yellow-carded for a ruck offence. From 5m out this time, Sam Vince scored. A missed conversion once more left it 28-27 at half-time but Havant were now ascendant.

Four more tries came over the next eighteen minutes. Straight after the kick-off, Havant captured the ball and some slick passing down the backline sent Sam Trodd over for his second. Jacob Knight, taking over the goal-kicking, converted to make it 28-34 on 42’. Angus Southon was making a few more of his now trademark runs, a recent addition to his all-round game. Two knock-ons in succession were in contrast to a sublime 50/22 from the increasingly influential Reuben Knight (actually a ‘22/22’) which gave Havant wonderful attacking ball. They didn’t waste it with Sean Shepherd scoring straight from the lineout. The conversion was missed, making it 28-39 on 46’.

Westcombe Park did then have some possession but were lacking confidence and continuity and struggling to retain any lineout ball. Havant were posing problems across the field with Sam Trodd again breaking, as was Colin Sisk, and Angus Southon making ground through the middle. Havant almost scored again, getting over the line, but the ball was adjudged ‘held up’. Will Maxfield was replaced by Ash Chirima and hat-trick man Benjamin Charnock was given a ten-minute rest for a ruck offence on 52’.

Havant took full advantage. Another Colin Sisk half-break set up position for Reuben Knight to kick for space once again and another penalty got the visitors to 5m out. The ball was rucked out to the middle of the field and on 55’ Ross Parkins scored under the posts, with Jacob Knight converting to make it 28-46.

Three minutes later we saw a moment of real quality after another penalty was conceded by the hosts. The following maul sucked in the defence and Reuben cut through beautifully to score under the posts giving his brother Jacob an easy conversion. Now 28-53 to Havant on 58’. At this point the try demolition came to an end and shortly after we experienced the twenty-minute stoppage for Sam Vince’s injury, who was also awarded a very subtly given yellow card, given the circumstances.

On resumption Havant were understandably subdued for a few minutes and, given numerical advantage, the hosts had the opportunity to score twice on 69’ (Benjamin Charnock once more – his fourth!) and 72’ (scorer unknown), both converted by Daniel, and briefly give themselves a chink of light at 42-53. Havant put an end to what would have been an injustice with a final score credited to Reuben Knight (although this observer thought it was Colin Sisk) on 75’ (conversion missed). A few minutes later the whistle went with a comfortable and much-needed win for the visitors. (report by Doug Miller)

Other League Matches
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Henley 46 – 27 Old Albanian
Jersey 12 – 34 Dorking
Leicester Lions 42 – 39 Colchester
London Welsh 0 – 45 Oundle
Barnes 34 – 32 Canterbury