Portsmouth win but must address disciplinary problems

The home side came out on top in a hard-fought game played in horrendous conditions at Rugby Camp.

To see the full picture gallery from the match click on the link at the top of the story or on the icon on the main image.

For the second successive week, however, Portsmouth were guilty of poor discipline and finished the game with only 13 players on the pitch.

In their past two games Portsmouth have conceded 50 penalties had two red cards and 10 yellow cards.

Coach Adam Long, standing in for the absent Neil McRoberts, admits this has to change.

He said: '˜We were our own worst enemies again.

'˜Once more we gave away a lot of penalties and picked up four yellow cards.

'˜We can't give that many penalties away in any conditions.

'˜It is something we seriously need to address.

'˜The coaching staff and the players need to pull together on this one.

'˜We have to cut it out because when we come to the tight games that really count it will really hurt us.

'˜Good teams will punish us.

'˜We were lucky to get away with it.

'˜Fortunately our structure was there for us and it got us through.'

Conditions were made treacherous by a torrential downpour just before the kick-off.

Portsmouth were slow out of the blocks and the Kent visitors were on the front foot in the opening stages.

The home side came under pressure early on and conceded a converted try after just six minutes.

It wasn't until midway through the half that the powerful home pack started to apply pressure 

On 21 minutes a penalty kick to the corner led to a line-out and hooker Tim Snowdon was driven over from close-in.

In contrast the second try was forged by the three-quarters.

Simon Morgan and Mark Ovens cut through the Bromley midfield and winger Noah Cannon was on hand to take the scoring pass.

Long added: '˜I felt once we got going we played the conditions better.

'˜Our half-backs pinned Bromley back by kicking into the corners whenever they could.

'˜Then we let the big heavy boys do all the hard work.

'˜We knew before how we played the conditions would either win or lose us the game.

'˜Our scrummage and set-piece play was really decent.

'˜Our third try came from a fantastic piece of rugby in the conditions.'

Cannon, making his debut, was on the end of a brilliant move that started inside Portsmouth's own half.

In the closing stages it was the superb defence of the home side that saw them through.