Hav welcomed the west country team Lydney to Hooks Lane in a must win game to ensure the gap is maintained between us and the chasing relegation pack.
The good news on the team front was the return of Brad Mockford to the second row, were he was joined by Ali Ramus with Andy Tart continuing as hooker after his encouraging performance at Ealing last week. The bad news was the injury to Sid Claffey, resulting in him being replaced by Jamie Knowles who himself had just returned from injury.
Straight from the kick off, Hav put pressure on the Lydney try line, which resulted in a penalty to Hav in the 3rd min, which Pucs convert. Lydneys restart kick was quickly returned by Hav to the Lydney 22, where again the forwards had the upper hand and dominated the scrums. Hav were awarded another penalty after a fine move involving the back and forwards, which Pucs easily converted 6 -0 to Hav with only 10 minutes gone.
Hav were having all the play in the first quarter of the game, but Lydney were awarded a penalty against the run of play, Davis converted 6 -3. This seemed to spur Lydney into action, and they were awarded another penalty, which was missed.
The Lydney pressure resulted in a try in the 34th min by Knight after a three quarter move and poor tackling from Hav, for Lydney to go over in the corner. Davies converted the try 6- 10, this was the last major play of the half.
This time it was Lydney who came out firing on all barrels with a clever drop goal from Davies 6 – 13 from the first play. With this pressure from Lydney, Hav introduced Jon Barfoot for Andy Tart with Steve Cruddas going to hooker, but it was Lydney who scored next, a try by Jones and converted by Davies 6 – 20 after 54 mins.
Hav started to get their game together with Pucs missing a penalty kick. Hav were awarded another penalty (58 mins) which Pucs kicked to the corner for catch and drive but this resulted in Hav knocking on. Hav came back at Lydney with the same scenario and this time Hav crossed the line for a try by Dylan Raubenheimer which Pucs converted 13 – 20 with 20 mins remaining.
Omeed Martini came on for Stu Ingram, but it was Lydney who scored next with a catch and drive from a line out. The conversion missed 13 – 25 (76 mins), and Hav bonus point was gone.
Hav made further changes with Richard Adams and Ollie North on for Matt O’Shea and Ali Ramus.
Hav had the better of the final minutes of the game with a run by Pucs to the corner with the try line begging, but the final pass unfortunately was missed, and the match ended 13 – 25 to Lydney with no bonus point for Hav.
Hav played well in some phases of the match, but with no points, they have now dropped down to 11th place after Barking beat the ever improving North Walsham .
With Hav not having a game next week, it’s time to regroup for the push for survival. The next game is against the bottom team Luton at their place. This is a must win game, and with Hav’s performances to date, they can do it.
Hav team: - Steve Stapleton, Richard Buck, Neil McGovern, Jamie Knowles, Matt O’Shea (Richard Adams 77 mins), Pucs Ngapaku, Liam Davenport. Stu Ingram (Omeed Matini 72 mins), Andy Tart (Jon Barfoot 46 mins), Perrie Durant, Ali Ramus (Ollie North 77 mins), Brad Mockford, Harry Heasman, Steve Cruddas, Dylan Raubenheimer
Hav Scorers:
Tries: Raubenheimer (60 mins)
Conversions: Pucs (60 mins)
Penalty: 2 Pucs (3, 10 mins)
Lydney scores Tries: 3no Conversions: 2no Penalty: 1no Drop goal: 1no