Havant traveled to Hertfordshire to play Tring, the heavy rain of the morning subsided to beautiful sunshine with a stiff breeze running the length of the pitch. Thoughts were certainly not about the last time Havant came to this ground back in 2011-12 season, a record loss.

There were changes to the Havant selection with the most notable being Nathan Bellman partnering Richie Janes in the 2nd row after Harrison Young pulled out with an injury. Tom Blackburn again made a start at tight-head with Sean Shepherd taking the absent Will Brock's place at flanker. There was a place on the bench for the first time this season for back-row Mitch Goldring.

Havant's fast start looked like overwhelming Tring, with the first twenty minutes reminiscent of that powerful show against Sidcup on opening day. Direct powerful running saw Havant taking the lead on five minutes, Sean Shepherd finding space out wide before smashing over the try line for Havant's first. Jacob Knight missed the conversion making the score 0-5.

On eight minutes Havant scored their 2nd try of the day with a powerful run by Joel Knight leading to Wayne Dugan scoring under the posts, this time the conversion was good from Jacob Knight making the score 0-12. Havant's direct running was causing the Tring defence assorts of problems.

Havant were taking advantage of the slope and the wind to keep Tring penned in their own half and on twenty-three minutes the Havant pack roared to the line with Nathan Bellman dotting down out wide, Jacob Knight's conversion was unsuccessful. 0-17.

After two earlier penalty misses for Tring they were finally on the scoreboard with the speedy winger crossing the whitewash after some poor defending out wide the conversion was good. 7-17.

Just minutes later Tring again bagged points with a penalty for an infringement nobody saw from the touchline. 10-17. With Sean Shepherd being shown a team yellow!

The momentum of the game was clearly now in favour of Tring they made all the running and their rolling maul was effective. Their 2nd try came on thirty-eight minutes a 5-meter line out was driven over the line by their pack which was also converted making the score 17-17.

Half-time Tring 17 Havant 17

The 2nd half was sixteen minutes old when Joel Knight kicked a rare penalty for Havant putting them back in front 17-20.

More pressure from Havant near the Tring line and a clever offload from scrum-half Jake Hewett gave Sean Shepherd the easy chance to score his 2nd try for Havant and the bonus point. This was converted by Joel Knight after he had taken over kicking duties from brother Jacob Knight.17-27.

Back came Tring again with their never say never attitude and with the partizan crowd baying for every infringement the match was at boiling point. Their winger raced over in the corner again after some poor defensive cover making the score 22-27.

Sensing another momentum swing in favour of the Black and Amber shirted Tring side, the crowd noise went up another level when another penalty was given, although the Tring player hit the upright to the delight of the noisy faithful.

Havant thought their luck had changed, but Tring had other thoughts, with the penalty count rapidly going up Havant again found themselves defending the 5-meter line, the rolling maul was edging closer and closer before finally dropping over the line and the game was level in time added on. The conversion was good and Tring had taken the lead for the first time in the match 29-27.

There was just enough time maybe for one more Havant attack, but a poor kick-off didn't go 10-meters and from the resulting scrum Tring kicked to touch and the referee blew on Havant's third defeat in a row.

Full-time Tring 29 Havant 27

Will Knight's thoughts after the game

"That was tough to take for the squad. We had asked for a fast start and they certainly gave us that."
"At 17-0 we looked in control but credit to Tring they kept coming at us.They pulled back just before the breakout we didn't feel that it wasn't a game we could win"
The first 20 minutes of the 2nd half was very good but we again managed to let them back off the hook with some poor discipline"
"We will learn from this loss but we need to be more clinical when we get the chance to kill the game"