Unlucky 13 for Havant

Will Knight’s side were looking to make it 13 straight wins in the league but came unstuck against their Hampshire rivals.

Havant led 17-7 at the break but allowed the home side to take the initiative in the second period to inflict a painful defeat.

‘We can have no complaints,’ said head coach Knight.

‘On the day we were our own worst enemies and played right into Tottonians hands in the second half.

‘After the break we lost a bit of energy and line speed.

‘We backed off a little rather than taking the game to them.

‘This gave their dangerous set of backs the space to hurt us and grab the initiative.

‘We played reasonably well for patches in both halves and it was still close at the end.

‘It boiled down to a couple of errors on our part but Tottonians deserved it on the day.’

Havant started well – playing with the confidence of a team in form.

After five minutes forwards and backs combined well to send winger Jay Wilks over for a try, which Joel Knight converted.

Joel Knight soon added a penalty before the home side hit back with a converted try.

Havant gave themselves a boost with a second try just before half-time.

Gav Hart picked up at the base of the scrum and fed Joel Knight who took a perfect line to score.

The skipper again added the extra points to leave Havant sitting pretty at the halfway stage.

‘I felt we were in control at that point and we talked to the players about tightening it up at the start of the second period,’ said Will Knight.

‘Instead we went out and conceded the next two tries.’

Tottonians stretched into a 24-17 lead before Rich Neil ended a series of forward drives with Havant’s third try.

This left the two sides locked at 24-24 going into the final quarter.

But having got back level, Havant quickly conceded another try.

Five minutes from full-time a try by scrum-half Wayne John brought Havant back within two points but a late Tottonians penalty sent the visitors to defeat.

‘In the second half we lost our shape and discipline,’ said the head coach.

‘We let some of the referee’s decisions get to us and this contributed to us not controlling the controllables.

‘We gave Tottonians a number of chances and to be fair they took them.

‘Having been in front at halfway we failed to close the game out.

‘One positive is we did manage to come away with a four-try bonus point.

‘It is how we react to this defeat when we make the long trip to Dover next week that matters.’