Gosport & FareHAM beat Andover 10-6 away in the NPI Intermediate Cup second round on Saturday - but for 50 minutes, any kind of score seemed unlikely.

Defences were firmly on top and induced any number of errors as both sides struggled to find a way through.

A half-time scoreline of 0-0 is unusual nowadays but was a fair reflection of a very evenly contested period, in which the only clear-cut scoring opportunity came on 38 minutes when Tony Chapman missed a penalty strike for Andover.

Both sides had got near the opposition's line on a couple of occasions in the first period and the second began in the same way, with Andover threatening first then having to defend desperately as Sean Fanning made a superb break. But Fanning ruined his good work by missing the subsequent straightforward penalty.

This was the prelude to spell of kickable penalties, Chapman missing one then landing another from the same spot on 50 minutes, while Fanning had two more bad misses, enabling Gosport to ran their next two with Mark Camp getting over in the corner from the second.

Andover's Dave Powell had a try disallowed for offside before Chapman landed yet another penalty to regain the lead.

Minutes later Richard Hutchinson made an even bigger mess of a fourth Gosport penalty attempt but his side gained a 10-6 victory when Andy Milton dived over following a rare spell of flowing rugby.

Basingstoke cruised into the third round, disposing of a lacklustre Alton side 38-10 at Down Grange.

The visitors were already weakened by unavailability due to Dave Osborne's wedding and were further disrupted by first-half back-row injuries, so were barely in the game until Simon Doel and Danny Martin gave them a brief flicker of hope with second-half tries.

Matt Hart was in good form with the boot, landing four penalties and converting Denville Elleston's try as Basingstoke led 19-0 at half-time.

After this, Gareth Jones grabbed a brace of tries, Ben Hausermann scored another and Hart landed two more conversions.

Portsmouth gained a 30-18 win over Jersey in a match which was marred by a prolonged brawl near the end.

That extended the second-half to 51 minutes - and the first had lasted 47.

In those extra seven minutes, Jersey scored a converted try that reduced Portsmouth's lead to 25-15 after they had powered comfortably ahead with tries from Matt Gronow, Piers Howarth, Michael Vine and Neil Styles, to which Styles added a conversion and penalty. It then took a late try from Brit Pearce to seal the Portsmouth win.

That was the extent of Hampshire success in this competition, while the Dorset & Wiltshire interest was maintained by Dorchester's 36-6 win at Chippenham and Wimborne's 13-8 success at Swindon.

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