And although Raiders came away with some reward, they were left shaking their heads at how they had not returned home with a full five-point haul.
Guernsey outscored their hosts by seven tries to six, but Joel Knight excelled with the boot for Havant and it was his last-gasp penalty that earned them a share of the spoils just moments after captain Dom Rice had seemingly snatched victory for the visitors.
‘From a neutral’s point of view, what a game. From our point of view, it was frustrating and disappointing in the end – a bit of a head-scratcher in all honesty,’ said Raiders coach Luke Jones.
‘It is two points we have dropped, even though three points on the road is good.
‘The positive is that we are scoring points, but the negative on the other side is that we are conceding points and quite heavily, too.’
Only once during the timeline of the match did either side put back-to-back scores together in a half and that came when Havant responded to Ciaran McGann’s opening try with two of their own.
Remarkably, the lead changed hands nine times during the 80 minutes.
At half-time Havant held a slender 21-19 lead, the sides separated only by one missed Raiders conversion, with both having touched down three times. Ethan Smith and Josh Poullet scored Guernsey’s other first-half tries.
Liam Welch’s converted try edged Guernsey ahead for the second time early in the second half and then the sides traded try for try, with both Poullet and McGann adding a second to their personal tallies before Rice went over late on to put his side 45-42 ahead.
However, there was just enough time left for Havant to respond.
‘We were not sure what was left in the game [when Rice scored] and the scoreboard clock was actually over time, but we felt there were probably a few minutes remaining,’ Jones said.
‘As it turned out, there was a minute-and-a-half to go, so we knew there was still time for anything to happen and they managed to get a penalty from which they got the three points.’
The Raiders coach added that his side’s tries had come from a mixture of good work from both forwards and backs.
He reported that the starting front row of Sam Steventon, Tom Ceillam and Martinas Dromantas all put in impressive shifts and several others also put their hands up as potential man-of-the-match contenders, adding that it was good to have the experience of former captain Lewis Hillier to call upon, too, in the absence of Charlie Wilkinson.
However, there was no hiding the overall feeling that this was one that got away.
‘When you score a good amount of points against any side in this league, you put yourself in a good position to come away with something from the game, but to concede that amount of points and the way we conceded them was frustrating,’ Jones said.
‘I don’t think it was anything too specific – we are reviewing the game as a collective – but it is just little moments when if you switch off or do not do something quite right, you can get punished in this league. We have done it to other teams, too, so we know you cannot keep having these lapses.’
Raiders have dropped two places to seventh in the table, but are just four points off second-placed Bury St Edmunds who visit Footes Lane this Saturday.
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