That Combe had led for most of regulation time only added to a sense of extreme disappointment when the home side struck deep into added time to win this close encounter. True there had been a couple of lengthy stoppages for injury but it was difficult to calculate where all the additional minutes had come from.

In the first half the visitors mastered the difficult conditions to better effect and dominated possession and territory. Scrum half Jacob Buckley's distribution and awareness helped Combe exercise a fair degree of control and the game was played mainly in Havant territory. Cameron Hancock opened the scoring with a penalty when the home side were caught offside around the 22m line. Hooker Ollie Colegate scored from close range on 10 minutes after the hard work had been done by the backs taking out assistant ref JWT in the process.

Havant pulled back 3 points on 30 minutes when Combe were penalised on the 10m line but lock Hugo Macpherson increased Combe's lead with a short range try after Combe were camped in the Havant 22.

At 13-3 to the visitors the question was whether they could exercise a similar level of control in the second period. For 25 minutes of the half it seemed that they could but in a 3 minute period Havant scored 2 tries and a conversion to edge ahead for the first time in the match 15-13. MacPherson scored his second try on 70 minutes to regain the lead for Combe and the visitors seemed to be doing just enough to come away with their first away win of the season.

But credit to Havant backed by their vociferous support who kept going to the end (and beyond) to edge a very tight game. This was probably the best performance from Combe this season and the players can be proud of the effort and heart they showed.

Match reporter J.V