Canterbury 17 Havant 15

CANTERBURY snatched a last-gasp victory over a dogged Havant at Merton Lane to send their faithful home with plenty of Christmas cheer.

Reduced to 14-men and stifled by a solid Havant team that dominated possession and territory in the second half, the city club’s supporters had cause to be apprehensive.

However in the last 30 seconds Canterbury produced a gem of a try behind the posts for centre Theo Rhodes and the winning conversion by Kieron Lewitt brought the house down.

Havant took a first half lead with an early penalty and a converted try. Neil Meyer’s close range effort, converted by Wessel Wolmarans made it 10-7 at the break.

Canterbury drew level briefly through a Wolmarans penalty goal but from then on were kept almost permanently on the back foot.

Countless penalties and two yellow cards - for Blair Morris and Andy Bernthal - kept Canterbury penned in their own half and always on the verge of trouble.

While Morris was off the field for a technical infringement, Havant scored their second try and must have fancied their chances of extending a 15-10 lead.

However, with the clock running down, visiting skipper Stu Ingram got a yellow card, Canterbury moved the ball swiftly to the right from a ruck and Gert de Kock worked a lovely switch move to set up Rhodes to score.

Westcombe Park dropped down to sixth in National 2 after a 30-21 defeat at Southend on Saturday.

The two teams - who both won promotion from National 3 South last season - were evenly matched but Southend just had the edge to close to within two points of Combe in the table.