Old Albanian knew their surface well and came out fast, quickly establishing some expansive attacks and a 12-0 lead/buffer against which Havant had to work their way back into the game. Happily it didn't take long before we had established some usable field position in the right area of the pitch and were starting to threaten their line with steady phase play. Wes Dugan eventually taking a nice offload in space from Jacob Ashworth, who carried well, crossing the line to dot down close to the posts (12-7). Having subsequently established ourselves and shaken off the start, we began to play better rugby and for the second quarter looked to be applying some real pressure, eventually drawing OA into rushing their defence and subsequently making mistakes, winning a yellow (26') and 3 extra points (12-10) for a high tackle, which by (29') had become two OA players down. At this point with OA down to 13, we probably should have been able to turn the screw and secure the game. Establishing field position, Kicking to the corner multiple times - we pressed very hard and coupled with 5 yard scrums were applying pressure deep in their red zone ... only to be held out without scoring by some clever (probably unseen) containment play - on another day we might have come away with a penalty try, but to their credit OA had worked us out, contained Sean Shepherd and co and were good with their groundwork, providing the picture the ref needed to see and subsequently survived our attacks... only to breakout and score themselves (19-10). Further pressure on the Havant defence subsequently saw a 10 min card for Haz Young (High Tackle?) and the OA score bump up (22-10). We finished the First half having had a lot of useful possession but with too many unnecessary errors negating some good attacking phase play.

Second Half - Havant came out reconsolidated and set to work, by 44' we had recovered the penalty deficit (22-13), only to let OA establish field position again and start accruing more scores. By 66' it was 34-13 and the game looked to be running away from us, as injuries started to mount in our backline. Despite that - we still had some opportunities to create space, eventually James Wise found space out wide for a relatively easy run-in score (34-18), but OA kept attacking and by (73') we were staring at 44-18 with no bonus points. Normally there wouldn't be much to gain at this point - but after one ill-timed high tackle resulting in an injured Hav player and an OA red Card (77') - the landscape changed.. there was now more space on park to attack. Havant definitely now had an opportunity to chase hard for some return on their afternoon's efforts. Regaining possession and pushing wide, Wes Dugan got over on 80' (44-23) and now the race was effectively on to recover a bonus point with a 4th try. OA were still playing - but happily we recovered the ball in middle ground, worked our way back up the field retaining possession, won a penalty, kicked to the corner and the rest was the result of a standard bundle of big heavy men throwing themselves at the line. Haz Young finally took the driving score with the extras being added by Joel K (44-30). Not a win, but a very positive last quarter, where we demonstrated some real intent - like everyone else around the ground was thinking, imagine if we had kicked into gear slightly earlier!

Summary: Not a game we ever had total control of, they always seemed to look more fluent on the ball than us, rapidly switching attacking direction or generating counter attack when given the chance, but there were definitely periods where we looked the stronger and were able to apply really solid pressure to generate scoring opportunities. There is still a lack of relative pace against some teams out wide, and we are probably still short of a fast heavy ball carrier generating real 'Go Forward' possession, but we are adapting within our constraints and playing with the limited possession we can generate. With the injury list now restoring itself - who knows we might see greater options for selection in coming weeks. One thing for certain, this team hasn't lost its gritty edge, there is a dogged determination to fight with whatever ball we get hold of - as seen today in the Bonus Point recovery. Despite having had a difficult run of 5 - all the games in this half of the season are now going to be tight - as the proximity of the the relegation zones tightens ones focus, we simply need to ensure we can stay clear of the melee by either generating 5 point winning performances or snatching bonus points wherever we can. Everyone now appears to be generating form and all of these games will be proper scraps. All points will count from here on in as the chasers below us are now gathering some momentum.

Will Knight's reflections on the game
"If I start with the positive we managed to get another what might be vital bonus point today. That came from some pretty hard-nosed running and carrying in the last 10 and we got over the line. But we have to reflect on elements of our performance in previous 70 where we allowed OAs so many easy metres. In this league against good sides if you miss a tackle you can get really punished and that happened today. We are now in more of a dogfight at the bottom of the league and there are some crucial games and performances needed to ease that pressure. I am sure that the boys are up for what is going to be an ‘exciting’ end to the season."