Tottonians’ much changed side put in a battling performance at Sevenoaks but lost their catch-up London 1 South league match 20-12.

The weekend’s game was in Totts’ diary as a rest week so many regulars had made other arrangements and could not make the long trip to Kent which, had it not been for a frozen pitch, would have taken place a fortnight earlier.

With four first choice scrum halfs unavailable, flanker Kevin Raqio pulled on the number nine shirt as the Totts team was reshuffled.

Tottonians rose to the occasion and had enough possession to get something from the game. However, they were robbed of the ball too many times and came up against some steely defending from the home side.

Sevenoaks were 10-0 up after ten minutes through a penalty and converted try but Totts got back to 10-5 down at half time after Richard Buck crossed the line.

The mid-table Kent side pulled further ahead just after the interval and punished a period of Tottonians’ pressure with a breakaway try to go 20-5 ahead.

With five minutes to go Nick Jones went over to give Tottonians hope of closing the gap enough to earn a point but Sevenoaks shut the door.

There were several cards shown throughout the match – a yellow for Tottonians’ Pierre-Alex Clark and a couple of yellows and a straight red for one of the home side’s flankers late in the game for foul play.