Rugby: Defeat for Andover against Portsmouth

Andover chose a bad day to turn in one of their poorest performances of the season last Saturday and ended up with an away defeat against Portsmouth.

The Saxon Safety-sponsored side will point to three hugely controversial calls from the visiting Somerset referee in the last two minutes, but in truth they only had themselves to blame, for not putting this game to bed long before the final drama.

Indeed, Andover were the best team by far in all but the lineout and with elements against in the first half, made this dominance count.  

Although not firing on all cylinders behind a scrum that was running forwards at times, there was no sign of the problems to come as gave them an early lead with a lovely try he converted himself after a fine Stan North break.

 Man of the match Rich Retallick (Image: Paul Campbell)

Portsmouth soon showed intent themselves with a missed penalty, but then drew level with a catch and drive try from a lineout with several Andover defenders looking very out of sorts.

Andover then took control of possession for a long period as skipper Alex Hibdige,  Tim Marx and Jake Meek, dominated the scrums supplying almost endless ball.

Andover however conspired to mess up half a dozen good opportunities in this period and it was twenty minutes before they put daylight between the sides.

From an excellent break by Cj Feirn and Ioan Gwynne Davies, 18-year-old debutant Ollie Carr Smith launched a superb cross kick and Harrison Pape needed no second bidding to race away and score a fine try again converted by Retallick.

The Andover fullback soon added three more points from a penalty to put Andover seemingly in control at the break.

Andover began the second half well and again created good ball and space, but they were wasteful with the possession and Portsmouth once again made them pay with a try after Andover coughed up possession far too easily.

Andover, prompted by Sean Higgins again had plenty of ball and with the introduction of Bryn Waite and Harry Batt the lineout looked more threatening, but Andover remained very hesitant in attack and fifteen minutes later Portsmouth made it a one-point game from another catch and drive.

Andover went back to their strength and after a series of scrums saw the home side receive a yellow card, it looked like Andover would see it through and maybe even score again.  

They did not score again however and that was crucial. With two minutes left Andover had a scrum in the Portsmouth half and looked comfortable. The referee however missed a blatant infringement on Higgins and Portsmouth gained field position with a lineout deep in the Andover twenty-two.

With the throw not straight Andover had scrum put in for the last play of the game, but as the two sides came together, the official judged Andover to have pushed early and awarded a free kick. Portsmouth went for the line but there was then uproar as the referee awarded the try with Bryn Waite seemingly under the ball.

Afterwards, Director of rugby Andy Waite said: "I spoke to the referee afterwards and he accepted he missed the offence on Sean, but his view of the early push was so hard to take from a team so dominant at scrum time.

"That said our players know that this defeat cannot be put at the referees' feet. Refs have a tough job and don't get the help of touch judges at this level. He didn't make anywhere near as many errors as the Andover players did, so we must look at ourselves and improve hugely with the ball going forwards."