Gravesend woke from a first-half slump to beat Havant 29-23 in National League 3 London and South East.

A poor 40 minutes saw Gravesend score just seven points to Havant’s 20, leaving defeat certain without a second-half improvement.

An early penalty opened the scoring for the away side and they increased their lead through a converted try. Sox Stevens and Dave Dorton’s try and conversion closed the gap, but the rest of the half went Havant’s way with a penalty and second converted score helping them take a 20-7 lead.

Havant got the first points of the second half, another penalty, but Graves hit back when Keepa Mewett’s quick tap penalty had the visitors on the defensive and he crossed the line, with Dorton again converting to narrow the deficit to nine points. Adam Bishop then went close, but failed to ground the ball.

Graves put the near miss behind them, though, with Ziggy Stevens going over before Terry Papworth added to the try count when he capped the front row’s fine display. Dorton’s kick completed the scoring.

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