Saxon Safety sponsored Andover go into the last game of the league season this Saturday at Bournemouth, knowing a win will gain them promotion to level six of the national pyramid.

It will not be the first time the ‘All Blacks’ have been at this level as previously reported, as they did achieve the same some twenty years ago, but it will still be a journey into the unknown for this current group of players and a fantastic achievement for the club. 

Andover need to be in the top six second placed teams at level seven to gain promotion, from the eighteen leagues in the country, and they currently lay in one of those spots.

Director of Rugby Andy Waite said ‘ It’s a complex system and it’s firmly in our hands now but it’s been an almighty effort to get here. Because the system involves percentage of points available for all teams across the country, you cannot afford to lose and need to get bonus points in every game.

Our record of away wins in particular has been amazing and I take my hat off to the lads for getting us this far.

If we make it and get us back to where our legendary team of the early noughties took us, it will have been some journey for the likes of skipper Alex Hibdige, Tom Waite, Nic Reed and Rich Rettalick who were part of the team ten years ago that narrowly staved off relegation to level ten.

It is those guys and everyone else who played then and since, that has got us to this point and I’m sure the whole town will join me in getting behind them for the last effort.