After 15 years away, Havant roared back into the National leagues with a hard fought victory against Sevenoaks. The stage was set with the faithful turning up in numbers.

Under grey skies, Havant had the brighter start, with several incursions into the Sevenoaks 22 without scoring. Sevenoaks successfully disrupted the usually dependable driving line-out, before scoring first through a penalty in front of the posts from George Montgomery. Three minutes later, Sevenoaks, with their tails up, took control and scored a well worked try through Charlie Corrigan, converted by George Montgomery.

This sparked Havant into life, and they started to exert pressure but were down to 14 players after a yellow card for Joel Knight. Havant then chipped away at the Sevenoaks lead with a penalty from Jacob Knight. Following a yellow card for Sevenoaks hooker, Scott Sedgwick, Havant scored a well worked driving maul try through who else but Sean Shepherd, converted by Jacob Knight, with the scores level at 10 each the breathless first half came to a close.

Havant, driven through half time guidance from Head Coach Will Knight, came out firing on all cylinders, scoring through Richard Janes, converted by Jacob Knight, putting daylight between the sides. After a raft of substitutions from Sevenoaks, Havant stretched their lead through a penalty on 50 mins and, a fantastic backs move started by Tanie Naduva saw fullback Ben Griffin score on hid debut in the corner making the score 25-10. Both sides had periods of pressure but it was Sevenoaks that scored next with good try from Drew Forrester on 70. The last 5 minutes were frenetic, as both sides chased a bonus point, but the game ended after a knock on from Sevenoaks, to loud cheers from the vociferous Havant faithful.

Head-coach Will Knight's thoughts after the game…
“A really positive start! I felt we were really nervous at the start and were a little bit hesitant. As we got into the game the set piece started to function well and gave us a great platform to play from. Defensively I thought we were solid and not much came through us. We were disappointed not to get a bonus point but we did stop them getting one and I get a sense bonus points could be key this year. Overall we are really pleased.”