ANDOVER failed to build on last week’s battling display against Cobham as they were well beaten 24-5 at home to Portsmouth on Saturday.

The All Blacks picked up a hard earned bonus point in Surrey last weekend but were below par at the Goodship Ground on Saturday.

From the off Portsmouth’s simple but effective game plan paid dividends as they scored a try within the first minute.

Andover responded well with a stunning try from Dave Catt, who started the move with a tremendous break before feeding Sam Froggett.

From the ruck Keiran Jenvey fed Charlie Waite and his lovely pass gave Catt space to glide over.

The game settled for a period after this frenetic start and Portsmouth, through their huge New Zealander number eight, began to turn the screw in the loose.

At both scrum and lineout Andover manfully kept parity with the visitors, but some tactical play in the breakdown allowed the wilier visitors to stifle Andover, slow the ball down and let their bigger slower players dominate.

On the 25th minute the pressure told and Portsmouth scored a converted try to retake the lead.

Andover tried to come back and were looking secure with a manful scrummaging performance, when a bizarre yellow card for the excellent Jenvey turned the tide firmly in the visitors favour.

Andover fought hard but with a man down eventually succumbed just before the break to go further behind.

Despite the situation Andover began the second half brightly and when Waite’s sheer pace saw him collect his own kick ahead, Portsmouth had to cynically kill the ball to prevent a score.

The penalty was given, but to the amazement of the home support no yellow card followed and Andover remained a man down.

Andover pressed hard, but the visiting defence was firm and a couple of handling errors meant Andover could not reduce the gap.

Andover did produce one more gilt-edged chance however, when Waite kicked Catt through, but the winger pulled up with an injury.

With a minute to go Portsmouth delivered a final blow with a game ending try.

Coach Andy Waite said: “This was probably only the second time this season that I can say we were soundly beaten.

“I will take one positive, that no team this season has matched Portsmouth at scrum time and at times we did more than that.

“We have games coming up that we can get something from. We need to regroup and go again.”