Portsmouth 36 Andover 15

It was a bad day for Andover last Saturday as they went down to a heavy away defeat to mid-table Portsmouth.

In a rearranged fixture a much changed Andover never really got to grips with the very windy conditions and in truth made far too many basic errors, in a game that has dented but not extinguished their promotion hopes.

Saxon Safety-sponsored Andover started well and led by an early Rich Retallick penalty, but from then on a series of uncharacteristic blunders led to a number of scores for the home side despite Andover enjoying the lions share of possession.

The 'All Blacks' kicking game in particular coughed up far too much possession to Portsmouth, and they were only too glad to take advantage.

Four first-half tries to none was certainly not a scoreline that was expected, but Andover really only had themselves to blame.

In the second half, things improved significantly with Stan North and Jake Dixon carrying hard, Stan Pearson making inroads and Bryn Waite causing problems from his unaccustomed wing position. With a dominant scrum, Andover pressed hard to get back into it.

But once again a couple of handling errors let the home side grab two more tries to increase the lead before a try from man of the match Ioan Gwynne Davies and a penalty try, gave the scoreline some respectability.

After the game skipper Alex Hibdige was honest about the day's effort. "We simply weren't good enough today. The lads worked hard and dominated possession at times but you cannot keep making the same errors over and again and expect to win against tough opposition. We now have to put this behind us and go again next week away at Eastleigh."