On Saturday afternoon, Chichester travelled west along the south coast to play Gosport and Fareham. Blues made 6 changes to the team that narrowly lost to Bournemouth, last time out, with Lewis Underwood, Dan Heriot and Phil Dickin coming into the pack, Jamie Norris and Fin West joining the backs and Fin Glass on the bench.

On a bright sunny afternoon, with a 35 mph gusting wind coming off the Solent, it was Gosport and Fareham who kicked off, with the ball barely making the 10 metre line. Chichester were immediately on the offensive and, with the wind at their backs, had the opposition pinned back in their red zone for nearly 10 minutes. Both teams were struggling with the wind and when Gosport finally managed to cross the halfway line it took a tackle from Jamie Norris, on the 5 metre line, to stop a certain try. With Gosport’s confidence growing it was Chichester who found themselves under the cosh as the opposition forwards tried to batter their way through the Blues’ defence. On 19 minutes they finally made the breakthrough when ball was moved out wide for a try on the overlap. Conversion missed. 5 - 0. From the restart, Chichester upped the tempo and Gosport conceded a penalty and were then marched back 10 metres for backchat. Blues went for a tap penalty and after a series of pick and goes the ball was knocked on, inches from the try line. With Chichester dominating possession they were rewarded with a try on 34 minutes when Owen Tucker stole the ball at the breakdown before charging forward and offloading to Rory Dowding who scored next to the posts. Converted by Rory Minton. 5 - 7. From the restart, Gosport were straight back on the attack and after testing the Chichester defence for nearly 5 minutes they finally broke through to score under the posts. The conversion went under the cross bar but was awarded.

Half time and 12 - 7.

Chichester kicked off into the wind and were immediately under pressure after a couple of handling errors. A chip over the top from Gosport bounced awkwardly and Blues’ scramble defence was unable to prevent the opposition crossing the whitewash. Converted. 19 - 7 after 45 minutes. Gosport increased their lead on 54 minutes with an unconverted bonus point try. 24 - 7 with Blues seemingly dead and buried. However, Minton delivered a low testing kick from the restart which was cleared into touch by Gosport. From the lineout, the ball was spun out to Mike Burton who progressed over the halfway line before passing to Minton who offloaded to the supporting Huw Binfield. Chichester’s No. 8 shrugged off two defenders and ran the ball in from 30 metres to score under the posts. Converted by Minton. 24 - 14 with 56 minutes on the clock. For the next 20 minutes play ebbed and flowed, with both teams struggling with handling in the windy conditions. From a Blues’ scrum in the red zone, Minton whipped the ball out to Gareth Davies whose show and go saw him advance to the 22 metre line before offloading to Heriot. Chichester’s young lock burst through the Gosport defence to find himself 50 metres from the try line with only the fullback to beat, who he dummied for a try under the posts. Converted by Minton. 24 - 21 with 4 minutes left. With Gosport clearly rattled, Blues had one final opportunity to secure an unlikely victory but, having made some progress towards the try line, a crunching tackle saw the ball knocked forward. Gosport secured the ball from the scrum and kicked it into touch to end the match.

24 - 21 at full time and a losing bonus point for Chichester.

Man of the match was Dan Heriot.

Chichester squad: G. Knight, Underwood, Brown, Tucker (co-capt.), Heriot, Crouch, Dickin, Binfield (co-capt.), Minton, Davies, Norris, Fleming, Dowding, Evans, West, Glass, Burton and Scrivin-Wood.