ANDOVER Rugby Club boss Andy Waite has urged his side to keep “plugging away” after they suffered another last gasp defeat on Saturday, at the hands of Effingham and Leatherhead.

The All Blacks fell to a 23-19 defeat at the Surrey based side last weekend, despite having a narrow lead with two minutes to go.

It is the fourth time this season that Andover have suffered heartbreak in the closing minutes of games, after last gasp defeats to Winchester, Camberley and Old Reigatian earlier this season.

However Andover’s director of rugby, Andy Waite, has urged his team to keep their spirits up.

He said: “I really feel for the players who played today, they gave everything with a makeshift side and really deserved more from the game.

“It’s very frustrating and disappointing for the players, but it’s still early in the season and we are playing well enough to turn these results around.

“We got nothing here last year so this is progress and an away bonus point in this league is always valuable, but we know we should have had more.

“We just need to keep plugging away and learn to turn our dominance into points and stay calmer when we have possession.”

Andover were forced to make a number of changes due to unavailability prior to the game.

And the situation was made worse early on when Jonny Rogers was forced off injured early on.

Reorganisation led to full back Charlie Waite stepping in at stand-off, flanker Billy Pollard deputising at inside centre and 18-year-old hooker Harry Ward making his debut on the wing.

Waite gave Andover the early lead from a penalty, but the home side responded quickly with two kicks of their own.

After a prolonged spell of pressure, Kieran Jenvey finally danced over for Andover and when Waite was successful with a long range touch line penalty Andover went into the break with a promising lead.

Straight after the break however inexperience in the back line showed as Effingham’s influential scrum half scored a fine converted try without a tackle being made.

Andover roared back and from a series of rucks Matt Moore finished superbly to level the scores.

With two minutes left Waite kicked what looked like the winning penalty.

However Effingham hit straight back and with Andover digging deep to prevent a score, Jenvey was yellow carded for an infringement.

With the extra man Effingham ploughed on to snatch a try and score the conversion as the referee called time on the game.