ANDOVER RFC will be hoping to chalk up their first win of the season when bottom side Effingham and Leatherhead are the visitors on Saturday (3pm).

Last weekend, a much changed Andover made the trip to west London and despite a stirring second half, once again came away empty handed going down 43-25 to Old Georgians.

Already decimated by unavailability Andover suffered a further blow after just two minutes when flanker Billy Pollard was forced off with a knee injury.

Hooker Fin Waite replaced him as Sam Earle came on in the front row and up front Andover began well.

Rich Rettalick opened the scoring with a well struck penalty after a turnover from Charlie Waite, having his first outing of the season, but the good work was undone in just two minutes as poor defence let the home side in twice.

Another Rettalick penalty reduced arrears but OG's replied in kind before Andover imploded.

Three tries looked to have put them out of sight before Callum Farr went over to give Andover a glimmer.

Just before the break Alex Arter received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle and it looked bleak for the All Blacks.

At half time Andover regrouped and after some adjustment to the game plan came out fighting.

After just four minutes some great lineout work led to Andover finally going through phases, before man of the match and skipper Alex Hibdige crashed over for his first try.

Once again poor defence gifted the home side a try, but it was against the run of play as Andover continued to dominate.

Strong carrying from Jack Cooper, Wayne Jones and James Monck gave Andover great position, but they could not quite break through.

With half an hour to go Earle was struggling with an ankle problem and Andover brought on their only other replacement, colts regular Bryn Waite, for his league debut.

He joined fellow 17-year-old CJ Feirn in the back row, who had already been superb and between them they soon showed what Andover academy is producing.

Feirn's all action, hard running game came to the fore and as Bryn Waite ruled both the home and away lineout, Andover suddenly had the lions share of ball.

Josh Gibbs raised the temperature with a superb steal under the high ball and Andover were in business.

Andover just could not get the break through however as time ran down, but with a few minutes left a great blind side interchange between Hibdige and Bryn Waite saw the skipper finish well for his second try and with Retallick converting, Andover went all out for a bonus point.

OG's were visibly tiring but just as Andover thought they had a sniff from a turnover penalty, a missed touch kick saw the home side finish the game.

Afterwards Director of rugby Andy Waite said: "We came up here not expecting too much with a young cobbled together side and we were poor in the first half.

"After the break though we showed what we can do and really took it to OG's. There were some real bright spots especially with the younger lads and its disappointing that once again we've let bonus points slip."