It doesn’t get any easier for Saxon Safety sponsored Andover as they travelled to high flying Farnham last Saturday and once again fell to a seizable defeat.

The home side lay second in the league snapping at the heels of leaders Tottonians and were in no mood to let Andover get in the way of their ambition.

In truth the two sides were not that far apart and in some areas Andover dominated, but as has happened far too often this season, failing to score when on top and conceding silly tries instead, is allowing teams to get away from them.

Over the eighty minutes Andover mostly defended well and with skipper Alex Hibdige and his front five colleagues in fine form, they dominated the scrum and competed well at the lineout where Callum Hollinshead shone, leading to a lot of possession.

But time and again over eagerness and inaccuracy let Andover down in the Farnham twenty two and add to that at least two tries which should not have been from a defensive perspective, and the difference in scoreline is exposed.

Man of the match Alex Kane grabbed a brilliant individual reply for Andover to give them hope, but in the end Farnham just kept coming at Andover and although they never really ran away with the game, were able to keep the scoreline ticking, to in the end win by a slightly flattering margin, 47-5.

There were bright spots for Andover in the form of Harvey Maloney, Tommy Lloyd and Bryn Waite, who added pace and quality to the back line but also further injuries to Ioan Gwynne Davies and Roman Barton Knott added to Andover’s woes.

Afterwards Director of Rugby Andy Waite said: “We have had a very difficult run of games against the top sides and we have improved in a lot of areas.

“This league has now become two leagues and we need to make sure that when we play the sides in and around us, we play as well as we have been against the better sides and we will pick up points.

“Overall though the club is in good shape with the seconds unbeaten and winning their league after a good win against Tottonians seconds which shows as a club we are making real progress.”