In bright conditions at Hooks Lane the home side started with the greater urgency and enjoyed advantage in terms of both territory and possession. Playing with intensity forwards and backs combined well. In fact Havant were unlucky not to be two tries up within the first 10 minutes as both Jerome Trail and Joel Knight were held up over the Cobham line.

There was an air of the inevitable when Havant’s first try came at the end of the first quarter. Cobham had been struggling to get out of their own half and when a clearance kick went straight to fullback, Darren Bamford, he evaded the chasing tackler and sprinted 30 metres up into the attacking 22. Scrum-half Wayne John was on hand to continue the move and he found his blindside flanker Joe Davis on his shoulder to run in for a well-constructed score. Joel Knight added the conversion.

Havant’s second came almost immediately. From a ruck on their own 10m line the ball was moved quickly to centre Ben Brierley who carried deep into the opposition half and off loaded to Richie Janes in support. The move looked to have broken down as the ball went loose but first Dave Sweeney kicked the ball forward and the Joel Knight was able to win the race to score falling on the ball over the Cobham line. Knight converted his own score.

Windandsurf Flickr Phots of Match

As the home side continued to press the Cobham defence was being stretched lock forward Mitch Goldring made a powerful run up to within a few metres of the Cobham line and as the ball was moved away along the line Cobham tried to scramble across but Ben Brierley was able to step inside the cover and ground for Havant’s third. Knight again added the extra points.

Havant secured the try bonus point with a well worked training ground move at the front of the lineout. Gav Hart secured the ball and it was shifted across the lineout for a front peel. Hooker Jerome Trail was on hand to receive the pass and drive over from 10m out.
Cobham’s job was not made easier when their prop forward was sent to the sin bin for an infringement at the ruck in the red zone. Skipper Joel Knight opted to knock over the penalty to keep the scoreboard moving.

The final score of the half belonged to Darren Bamford. Great driving play by front row forwards Tom Blackburn and Luke Marks provided quick ball for replacement wing Jake Hewett to set off on a powerful surge into the visitors 22. Smart play by the back gave the fullback space and a beautiful dummy completely foxed the covering winger for Bamford to dive in for the score.

Cobham started the second half with much more urgency and enjoyed a good spell of pressure in the first minutes of the half. But it was the home side that scored first. With the forwards driving hard into the midfield Dave Sweeney carried the ball well and delivered an excellent flat pass on the gain line to supporting Lock Richie Janes who showed great pace and a bit of footwork to score a really well taken try. Skipper Knight adding the conversion.

Havant scored next from a good sniping run by scrum-half Wayne John, he carried the ball well and found Joel Knight in support who made good yards and then offloaded to Loz Blackburn who beat the last two tackles to go over in the corner. Knight hit an excellent conversion to take the extra points and it looked like the home side might run away with things.

But Cobham sowed a huge amount of resolve and never gave up. When Havant were caught in possession deep in their own 22, the referee gave a penalty for holding on and the Cobham scrum half spotted the gap and went quickly offloading to his outside centre who beat the cover defence to score wide on the left.

Cobham scored their second try through a great solo effort by their speedy right wing who chipped over the Havant cover and regathered his own kick to sprint in from 20m out.

I an increasingly feisty second period Havant were not going to let the visitors have the last word and a few minutes later Skipper Joel Knight went over for his second score. He received the ball on the 22 and stepped his way out of a couple of tackles to score under the post converting his own try to take the score over the half-century mark.

Havant Skipper Joel Knight was pleased with the result,

“If you had asked me before kick-off I would have taken that. We have another five league points and have scored 7 tries.”

“As a side we are very self-critical and are really keen to keep improving, we will look very hard at the 2 tries we let in and also our discipline at times in the second period.”

“Having said that we played some great rugby today, the pack were immense at times and the stuff we are working on week in week out in training is really giving us an edge.”

“Next week we play Chobham who are always a handful and we will need to be at our best to get a result up there.”