Southampton gave themselves a welcome boost ahead of their crunch league meeting with Petersfield next week by producing an impressive performance in defeating promotion chasing Trojans at Test Park.

The city club scored two tries, conceded none and that was extremely pleasing for returning skipper Marcus Coffin who knows that nothing short of victory will suffice on Saturday.

While Trojans admitted this was predominantly a training game for their side that contained just four regular first team players, the hosts took plenty from the run-out and tries from Pete O'Donnell and Jamie Stewart ensured the win came their way.

"We played very well," Coffin said, "and hopefully this will give us a bit of confidence ahead of next week," he added having played the whole game for the first time since recovering from an Achilles tear.

Trojans coach Pete Surtees felt he was just looking at options for next week's equally important league meeting at Isle of Wight. "I didn't learn a great deal today but this was just a mix-up of a team we put out."

Tottonians picked up a late fixture with Worthing II and on a wind-swept afternoon claimed a decent 27-27 draw against a strong Sussex side containing a handful of National League promotion chasing first-teamers.

In an entertaining game that belied the conditions, Totts moved into a 19-5 lead with the gale at their backs with good tries being spread across the back division.

A difficult defensive job in the second half allowed Worthing back into the contest although Danny Drake scored his first try for the team against the conditions that ensured parity.

"It was a very pleasing, very entertaining game against a side two divisions higher than us," skipper Paul Goodall said. "We did pick up a couple of injuries but they should be okay before the Winchester game next week."

A mish-mash of a Fawley side came off considerably second best to a powerful Andover II 60-0, which did little for their preparation for the important Eastleigh league meeting in a week's time.

With so many players missing from their regular outfit, the only feature of the game that new captain Lee Haisman picked up was that they came through the contest well with regards to their fitness.

"That was pleasing," he said, "but other than that, we were outplayed by a good Andover side."

The same result afflicted unavailability-crippled Paxton Pumas when they were well beaten by a polished Chichester III, although they were considerably assisted by players from further up in their London Three South-East club.

Also losing two players to injury in the opening ten minutes did nothing to assist their cause as the directness of the Chichester attacks caught the Pumas on the back foot continually.

Stoneham put up some fine resistance but still slipped to defeat against New Milton & District III 28-24 in their latest friendly encounter.