Medway made the long trip to face third placed Havant in the league on Saturday and unfortunately came away with nothing to show for their efforts.
Try as they might, it wasn’t their day, and Havant were worthy winners scoring four tries to Medway’s two.
After all of the recent wet weather, it was a pleasant change to play under a reasonably clear sky with little wind. The visitors made the worst possibly start to the game conceding a converted try within a minute and having not even touched the ball! Unchallenged, Havant won their own kick off, went through several phases before their impressive centre sliced through to score just to the left of the posts, 7 – 0. Things went from bad to worse from the restart. Medway immediately conceded two quick penalties and they found themselves back in their own 22 defending desperately. Somehow however, through spirited defence and Havant’s inaccuracy, the score line remained unchanged for the opening quarter.
Medway did start to grow into the game as the half wore on but some of the basic elements of their game were not working well and this provided a constant supply of easy ball to the home side. Despite little going right for the visitors, it seemed as though they might survive until half time having only conceded the single score. However, just before the interval with Medway attacking, a Medway player was penalised for being in front of the cross field kick. Havant took the penalty quickly and with the defence out of position, they streaked away to double their lead with a converted try under the posts, 14 -0.
If the start of the first half was bad, the start of the second half was even worse for the visitors. Any hopes of a revival were dashed as the home side scored two quick tries in the opening seven minutes to give Havant a 26 – 0 lead and secure the bonus point. With Havant now rampant, Medway were staring down the barrel.
Thankfully some respite came quickly as Havant had a player sent to the bin. Medway rallied well and used their numerical advantage to score two unconverted tries during this 10 minute period from Henry Hall and Conor Chalmers.
The final quarter was played out with lots of stoppages, little flow to the game and no further scores until Havant kicked over a penalty with the final act of the game.
Overall, Havant fully deserved their win using home advantage to the full. They hit harder and had more desire than their visitors all game. Medway have another week off before facing Brighton at home on the 3rd March where they will be looking to put things right and return to winning ways.