Andover 10 Portsmouth 15
It was another hugely disappointing afternoon for Saxon safety sponsored Andover as they fell to another late try this time at home at home to old rivals Portsmouth.
In a dour game very affected by the severe cold and heavy rain, Andover struggled to put together any cohesive rugby against dogged opponents.
Callum Barber-Starkey, Roman Barton-Knott and Callum Hollinshead provided excellent lineout ball throughout, and with Nic Reed and Toby Dixon prominent in a scrum that dominated all afternoon, Andover should have done better.
Too often however Andover failed to keep hard won possession especially at the breakdown, and a number of good opportunities went begging.
As always when chances aren’t taken it comes back to bite and when Portsmouth took the lead with a neat try it was no real surprise.
It was an awful day for kickers and neither side added anything with the boot as a result, so it was down to who could cross the whitewash most and it was here that a combination of sound defence, wrong options and a lack of patience from Andover cost them dear.
Behind at the break Andover went into the second half with high hopes and when the force of nature in the shape of skipper CJ Feirn forced his way over the line after Tome Erskine had gone close, Andover looked good.
Wingers Isaac Demesi and Jamie Banks both looked promising with the limited ball they had but Andover spurned further opportunities to go ahead.
Andover just could not get quality ball to their dangerous centre paring of Stan North and Evan Roll and it cost them dear as Portsmouth scored again from a rare foray into the Andover 22.
Undaunted Andover stormed back and it was that man Feirn again who went quickly from a short penalty to level once again.
Andover pushed for the win but a series of decisions went against them and with two minutes left it was the visitors who gabbed the decisive score.
Afterwards Director of Rugby Andy Waite said ‘ We are not getting the rub of the green at the moment which is very frustrating. We also have a lot of injury and unavailability which is hurting us. But we have a lot of young talent in this squad who are improving all the time, so we need to stick at it, go back to what we do well and we will turn it around.’