"Absolutely incredible." That was Winchester coach Mike Marchant's assessment of his sides' failure to cling on to a one-point lead for five minutes to sink Portsmouth in their derby London Division Two South meeting.

He was also far from pleased with the amount of handling errors and general misnomers that consequently cost them victory - including dropping the ball under the posts for a guaranteed seven points!

Marchant was fuming that his charges could so easily throw the game away having dominated the second half and clawed their way back from a 14-0 interval deficit to lead 18-17 with time running down.

Limping speedster Matthew Gronow drove through the midfield and his chip ahead found veteran centre Shaun Godkin on hand to wrap up the victory in the dying minutes - and Portsmouth coach Ian Chandler was a relieved man.

"With all the injuries we have got, they should have beaten us all over," he said.

"We defended superbly but at 18-17 down, I could not see us winning the game."

Marchant knows it was a chance gone begging.

"We should have won this game at a canter.

"We threw it away."

Gosport & Fareham slipped to their second straight defeat in Kent left them 15-12 losers to Tunbridge Wells but coach Sean Fanning was not overly disappointed.

With four colt youngsters and two new players in the starting line-up, Gosport were right in the game until the last ditch penalty robbed them of a deserved point and Fanning said, "it is disappointing.

"But if someone had said to me that with eight minutes to go we would be 12-12, I would have said that I would be happy with that with all the new players in the side."

It is two out of two for Havant as they tore into self-imposed London One promotion contenders Worthing 52-5, having zipped into a 35-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes.

Only injuries in key positions kept the tally within non-cricket score proportions but the damage was already done as winger Steve Stapleton ran in a hat trick in the rout which puts the Hooks Lane side second with a game in hand over leaders Thanet Wanderers.

Director of Rugby Adam King was delighted. "That was a terrific start and a good result against a side that are hoping to do well this season."

Elsewhere, Trojans' Ladies side have got their season off and running with a friendly win over Hove.

Sally Greenway scored all of the points in the 12-5 success with two tries and a conversion.