Gravesend suffered a narrow defeat in a rollercoaster game at Havant on Saturday, but gained a valuable bonus point from the 31-26 loss in National 3 London & South East.

Dave Dorton's early penalty sailed wide, but the hosts fumbled the ball and Ashley Moorey was first to the ball to touch down for a 5-0 lead, though the hosts were 7-5 up within half-an-hour and a second try made it 12-5 at the break.

The scores were levelled when Terry Papworth burst through to touch down and Dorton kicked the extras and straight away Tom Bishop raced through to give Gs the lead, with Dorton kicking them 19-12 ahead.

The hosts retook the lead 24-19, though Bishop was denied a second try after being held up and then again after putting a toe into touch.

Ziggy Stevens battered through down the right to level the scores and Dorton superbly kicked the conversion for a 26-24 advantage, however the hosts recovered from the restart and broke to add a converted score and a 31-26 lead.

Despite piling on the pressure in the last 10 minutes the visitors were unable to snatch the win, though stay sixth with two points on the day.