Townies taught a lesson by lesser New Forest sides

It was nothing more than either deserved for the efforts, especially Fordingbridge who turned over a lacklustre Millbrook side who were a pale shadow of the side that defeated Nomads the previous week 24-10.

The postmortem ran long into the evening over the way the home side performed and team manager Alan Day, who confessed he was far from blameless himself, admitted his side were in for a tough time at training tomorrow evening.

Although they had a lot of the play in appalling conditions, they allowed the light blues' young three-quarter line to capitalise on the numerous errors Millbrook presented to them.

Mark Newton, Tim Brittan and Nick Mowbray all gratefully received the gifts as 'Bridge built up the lead that, try as the might, Millbrook could not claw back. "It is yet another fantastic result for us," said a Fordingbridge spokesperson.

"Having seen Millbrook's result against Nomads last week, we thought we would be in for a tough time, but we played superbly in difficult conditions and deserved the win."

Day was far from impressed by his side though.

"We turned over far too much ball and paid the price," he bemoaned. "We are going to pay for doing that at training this week.

"That is just not good enough and we have to play better than that."

New Milton & District equally produced the local result of the round by submerging Southampton without trace to the tune of 22-7, running in three tries to just the single in reply.

The home side, seemingly relying on centre Martyn Sheridan for their bursting runs, were left without much of a game plan once the Milton back row pairing of Smith and Scoular had scuppered that route.

With the Hampshire 1 side, buoyant off the back of a superb win over US Portsmouth, in top form, they were firmly in control at the set piece and had the better up front.

Coach Rowan Thomas was quietly satisfied with his side's display.

The so-called easier victory marches for the higher league sides did not turn out that way as both Trojans and especially Romsey were made to work for their wins over Hampshire Division 3 opposition.

There was little in the way of celebration as Bryan Musk's side scrapped past East Dorset 30-10, mostly thanks the returning Richard Webb for shoring up a decidedly shaky scrum before getting the better of the Christchurch-based men.

Two tries from winger Jerry Francis saw Romsey into a 13-0 lead but the visitors closed the gap to just three points at the break and were putting the hosts into considerable anxiety going to the second period.

It was only when hooker Webb, playing his first first XV game in 18 months came on to steady an uncertain scrum that Romsey took a hold and three further tries - from skipper Darren Sharpe and Webb - saw them home.

Trojans got past Verwood 37-0 with a scoreline that looks comfortable and that is all that coach Pete Surtees requested as the win was all that mattered with big games ahead.

However, with his full first team playing against the border minnows, the points total will have disappointed him.

Fawley captain Bob Conway admitted there were many positives to take from his sides' crushing 69-5 defeat at resurgent and well drilled Farnborough.

The Hampshire Division 2 side, who open their account against Aldershot & Fleet next week and showed their wears against the North Hampshire opponents, who watched the game from the sidelines.

Lee Haisman scored Fawley's only try as Farnborough ran in scores almost at will, but the visitors' forwards gave a good account of themselves. "We are reasonably confident of a good start in the league," said Conway.

"Farnborough are a very well drilled side and that is why we can hold our heads high of a good performance," he added.

With two games played the signs are that US Portsmouth may not be the force that many are reckoning they are as they dropped to a 15-5 reverse to local rivals Nomads, while Isle of Wight slipped out to Surrey side Worth Old Boys 15-13.