Romsey collected their second home win in successive weekends last Saturday to further ease their relegation fears.

For the first twenty minutes of this game they looked as if they might repeat the previous week's performance and treat the spectators to an exciting and finally heartwarming afternoon. But this was not to be.

Early pressure from the Romsey pack pinned Southampton in their own 22 for long periods and after a couple of bungled efforts to drive over, the forwards found the patience to deliver the ball near the line to scrum-half Darren Sharpe.

He gave a swift, clean pass to flanker Tim Darby, who came bursting in on a superb angle to score a very fine try, duly converted by Graham Noble. But that was the end of the vintage rugby for the afternoon!

In the second half, Southampton's pack dominated the loose play and Romsey's line was continually threatened. Repeated infringements in and around the ruck gave

Southampton three penalties, two of which were converted, to reduce Romsey's lead to one point. After that, it was a dogfight to retain the lead.

Fortunately, the visitors' performance in the set pieces was not as good as their determined loose play. Romsey's pack repeatedly disrupted their opponents' scrum and line-out where Bellis and Nawn made massive contributions.

Clean ball for Southampton in either of these set pieces must surely have brought tries. But that was not to be, and the home team's dogged defence held out against the odds.

To compound their difficulties in the set pieces, the Southampton skipper made a gross error in choosing to run the ball instead of taking the three points on offer for a Romsey offside infringement in front of the posts. Southampton bungled the try-scoring effort, the whistle blew, and Romsey had won an undistinguished victory.

Still, a win is a win and it's better to win such an encounter than to lose it. The two points gained raised Romsey above Southampton and Old Emanuel in the South-West Four table.

This weekend, Romsey travel to Petersfield with their coaches' post match comments ringing in their ears. There are no home fixtures this week as the 2nd XV are also visiting Petersfield.