Kent edge past Hampshire at Havant in fine advert for rugby union's County Championship

Kent edged a thrilling contest against Hampshire 44-43 at Havant RFC’s in a fine advert for rugby union’s County Championship.

Ironically, a game featuring 11 tries was, ultimately, decided by penalties.

With around eight minutes remaining, Hampshire full-back Rhodri Adamson struck a beauty to push his side into a two-point lead.

Moments later, Frank Reynolds saw a similar effort fall just short but, as Kent pressed again, their scrum - which had an edge throughout - won an easier penalty.

Canterbury's fly-half duly obliged, taking his match tally to 19 to claim victory.

“Frankie kicked superbly - even the long-range attempt only fell a yard under the bar but was accurate,” said Taff Gwilliam, Kent’s director of rugby.

“Our nerves were on edge, I’m just delighted the boys came through.

“We must put this in perspective. We’ve had just two training sessions, and were very disjointed at times.

“But they’re all good rugby players, the communication skills were excellent, and we hung in there and, fortunately, prevailed.”

But fragmentation had showed up in only the fourth minute, as Hampshire sliced down the left wing, and Curtis Barnes’ inside ball sent fly-half Tom Fieldsend across for the match's only unconverted try.

However, a second ‘tap and go’ attempt saw Matt Harrison across at the other end, and the Westcombe Park inside-centre soon followed up with an intercept to put winger Jack Cohen over for Kent’s try.

Two Reynolds penalties sandwiched a try from Hampshire and Havant second-row Harrison Young from a close-range scrum and, as the host county spread ball across the field from a tap-penalty, Barnes sped across to bring the scores to within a point.

Loose ball was picked up by Harrison to extend Kent’s lead again,