Three players sin-binned and two injury withdrawals on day to forget for Havant at high-flying Dorking

High-flying Dorking, who climbed to the top of the division thanks to their latest victory, dominated Havant for large periods as the south coast side went down 44-12.

With Knight already knowing the size of task which awaited his side if they were to pull off a surprise victory, he was disappointed to see Joel and Reuben Knight collect yellow cards, along with Elliott Bellman, as Havant were forced to play for 30 minutes with 14 men across the match.

Added to that, both Will Brock and Jacob Knight (hand) were forced off through injury at Dorking to compound a day to forget for head coach Will Knight.

‘Hats off to them, they played very well, they’re a decent side and took their chances very well. They were thoroughly deserved winners on the day - I can’t have any complaints about that.

‘We were disappointed in the way we played, we didn’t play particularly well at all, we had flashes of really, really good rugby but too much that wasn’t really where we wanted it to be,’ assessed the Havant head coach.

‘We also played 30 minutes of the game with only 14 on the pitch because of yellow cards and when you’re playing a top team that’s going to be difficult.

‘You’re in charge of your own discipline so you can’t blame anyone else. We have to take responsibility for that.

‘There were a couple of injuries as well which meant we lost players during the game, Will Brock had to go off with an injury quite early and Jacob Knight had to go off with an injured hand so those things caused disruption.’

Havant failed to register their first points until some 14 minutes after the restart with Harry Ransom's unconverted try getting them on the board - by which point they were still trailing 31-5.

When Matt Barrett went over four minutes later and the visitors pulled the score back to 31-12 the most optimistic of the travelling contingent might have thought an unthinkable comeback was on.

But that brief points flurry was as good as it got for Havant, who conceded a further 13 points to eventually go down 44-12 at Dorking.