Hampshire's twin hopes of success in the Intermediate Cup were crushed by a combined total of three points on Saturday. Portsmouth went down by a single point at Cobham while two points separated Hertford and Gosport & Fareham.

Both Hampshire outfits were ahead on the try count in their respective games, Portsmouth by three to two and Gosport three to one. However, both sides failed in the kicking stakes and went the way of so many Hampshire sides before them in matches against out of county opposition.

Portsmouth lost 19-18 at Cobham and patently suffered from having played so little rugby over the past seven weeks, whereas their opponents had managed to keep going, even in the freezing conditions last week.

Even so, Portsmouth contributed to their own downfall by only succeeding with one of five kicks at goal and once dropping the ball when about to score a try. To be fair, the cover tackle that dislodged the ball from the arms of James Drew as he crossed the line was superb and hit him in just the right spot to move the ball.

Portsmouth coach Ian Chandler accepted that Cobham were worthy of their win but said: "I was disappointed with our performance. If we'd played to the levels we've been playing, we'd have won. It really showed that we haven't played or trained well for eight weeks."

Gosport also suffered for their inactivity against a Hertford team that had only missed out over Christmas, but they probably had more reason even than Portsmouth to be disappointed with their 19-17 loss. Three penalty opportunities to kick for goal were spurned in favour of going for tries and any one of those three could have given Gosport victory.

The Hampshire tale of woe continued yesterday when Winchester Colts were thrashed 50-0 at Redruth in the third round of the National Colts Cup.