Andover remained top of London South-West 3 with a hard-fought 28-10 victory at much improved Teddington.

The home side took advantage of the wind and slope in their favour to take an early lead with a converted try and penalty.

But Andover stayed patient and three Charlie Waite penalties got them back into the game before the break.

The dogged hosts never let Andover get into their free-flowing stride but the determined All Blacks slowly wore their opponents down.

A penalty try put Andover in front and then, from another short scrum, Marc Wilding broke and scored with Charlie Waite converting both efforts.

With time running out, Niko Rowe finished the matter with a brilliant try from 50 metres.

Coach Andy Waite said: “This was a very good away win against tough opponents.

“We know we can play better but we were losing games like this earlier in the season so we know we are still making good progress.”

Eastleigh kept with the leading pack with a bonus point victory at home to Ellingham & Ringwood.

The game was all square with five minutes of the first half remaining – through good defending from the Es and a few fumbles from the home side.

But a couple of incidents – a tackle the referee was not happy with and a collapsed maul – led to Ellingham losing two players to the bin and Eastleigh used their numbers advantage to push over a couple of times.

Captain Paul Fudio got the final touch twice and by Phil Baldwin converted both.

The home side kept up the pressure in the second half with wing Matt Blackman going over and flanker Tony Fudio bringing up the extra point with the the fourth try.

Baldwin converted each time for a 28-3 victory. Eastleigh’s Martin Kirby spent ten minutes on the sidelines after an altercation involving players from both sides while Ali Bennett kicked a second half penalty for the Es.

Eastleigh coach Andy Boyes said: “'We are starting to get back to the form we showed in the early part of the season.

“We dominated for the majority of the game today.

“We should have been four scores clear by half time.

“Only our lack of patience and a few mistakes prevented that.”

However, Ellingham saw it differently.

A spokesman said the yellow cards for Ben Warren, for what appeared a perfectly good tackle, and Andy Turner, for collapsing the maul with no prior warning, was the turning point of the game.