In a week where Havant was mourning the loss of “Founding member” and former Chairman Rob Hiscutt and current club President Nigel Campkin. A tough visit was on the agenda of Havant’s first XV.

A minute’s silence was impeccably observed before the game for our President, his wife Catherine, and son George watching from the sidelines.

Havant again made changes from the previous week's victory over Sutton & Epsom. A slight shuffle in the backline, with Harry Carr returning to the wing, Ben Chambers in his usual spot at fullback, and Jake Hewett again at scrumhalf. In the pack, there was no Ross Parkins or Jarod Leat. With their places being taken by Richie Janes and Will Brock respectively. Prop Tom Blackburn made his first appearance this year from the bench.

Jacob Knight kicked off into the bright sunshine in front of a partisan vocal crowd.

The first twenty minutes was a cagey affair with both sides testing out each other’s defenses, huge hits were coming from both sides with Cam Smith’s on the halfway line a highlight causing a knock-on and turnover ball.

On twenty minutes Havant was penalized for hands in the ruck, allowing Sevenoaks winger Ben Adams to slot over the first points of the match. 3-0.

Havant had the chance to tie the game on 29 minutes, however, Joel Knight’s kick from the angle was just wide of the posts keeping the score 3-0 to Sevenoaks.

On 35 minutes Havant was again penalized by the ref for not being 10 meters and Ben Adams duly converted stretching Sevenoaks advantage to 6-0.

Havant’s rhythm of the previous three games was missing, the pack was more than a match for a well-drilled Sevenoaks team in the scrum, but the lineouts were a real cause for concern. Havant were being given no time to set moves up with the fast defensive line of Sevenoaks disrupting any good ball.

Right on halftime Ben Adams extended Sevenoaks lead further with another penalty for ill-discipline at a ruck, making the score 9-0 a disappointing half for the Blue and White hoops.

Halftime Sevenoaks 9 Havant 0

Straight from the kick-off, Havant was under pressure, and Sevenoaks scored a controversial try right in the far corner, with the line official originally putting his flag up then putting it back down. The conversion from the tight angle was missed making the score 14-0.

The halftime talk had not inspired Havant to improve their performance, with them struggling to get into a game that Sevenoaks were starting to control tempers flared and the game was at boiling point on the pitch and off.

Ben Adams again kicked another penalty after a good turnover by the Sevenoaks pack pushing them further Infront 17-0.

Havant just could not get decent possession or a decent pass away. Sevenoaks defensive line was excellent all game stifling any attacking play from Havant.

On 68 minutes Sevenoaks put the game to bed. Scoring a well-worked try, offload after offload stretched the Havant covering defense giving an easy score to the right of the posts, conversion was missed again Sevenoaks a 22-0 lead.

Havant then had probably their best period of the game showing glimpses of the previous weeks wins, first Jake Hewett now playing fullback went on a darting run deep into Sevenoaks territory and Ben Chambers almost through on the wing only to be stopped with a tap tackle, meters from the line and the chances were gone.

In time added on by the referee, Havant finally got on the score sheet, decent pick and goes from the pack gave the platform for the backs to work their magic, Cam smith was put over in the corner, Jacob Knight added the extra’s and the referee blew the final whistle.

Fulltime Sevenoaks 22 Havant 7.

Will Knight’s thoughts after the game…?

“I think today we got a reality check that anything less than 100% in this league will not be good enough”

“We didn’t front up enough and Sevenoaks came at us all afternoon. They put us under pressure and some of our systems broke down a little bit”

We have been excellent defensively in the first three matches but today we gave them too many easy yards. Our scramble defense was at times excellent, but we shouldn’t really have put ourselves under that pressure”.

“The players were disappointed but very quickly we refocussed on what is needed to put things right for next week. If we learn from what happened today, we can turn into a positive”.