A penalty in the fifth minute of injury time ruined Gosport & Fareham's unbeaten start to the season but Portsmouth remain unstoppable as they thrashed Guildford to lead London 2 South.
Travelling light of a number of first choice players, Gosport were in sight of a deserved point from their visit to Old Mid-Whitgiftian when they conceded a late penalty to skipper Mark MacAskill.
Without James Wagstaffe, who plays for the Navy rugby league side next week and Neil Evans acting at scrum-half with Gareth Slade-Jones injured, it was not a bad performance.
"We just need to kill the game and play tactically and we didn't do that," said captain Simon Burns.
As soon as the rain began to fall, Portsmouth were always in the ascendancy in their match with Guildford and so it proved, shutting out the visitors 33-0 to extend their winning league start.
With the Surrey side nave in the forwards and Portsmouth's back row vastly experienced in the wet conditions, the black and golds controlled the match throughout from the time they were awarded a penalty try after 25 minutes.
They added four more tries in a solid team performance, adding scores at will.
l In the National League, Havant's torrid September has come to an end with no points in the bank and a place in the bottom three of 3 South.
Defeated by leaders North Walsham 27-15, they did clamber their way to within two points early in the second half when Matt Gronow crossed for his second try, but that was as close as it got as the Norfolk side showed their experience.
"It doesn't look good at the moment," confessed Adam King. "But this was a better performance and we must now keep our head, play to our strengths and try to make fewer mistakes."
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