SOUTHAMPTON avenged Romsey's surprise, yet deserved, victory of earlier in the season but were made to work for the points in this league encounter at the Sports Centre on Saturday.

After a frenetic period at the beginning of the game, Romsey quickly settled down and began to exert pressure on a larger but less mobile Southampton side. Things looked good for the home side as a well executed backs move almost resulted in the opening try.

Disappointed but still determined, the Romsey pack kept up the pressure and, moments later, secured good line out ball before managing to rumble the seven or eight yards to the Southampton line.

Impressive number 8 Adam Coe broke from the melee and popped the ball to captain Ben Hewitt, who was left with the formality of falling over the line.

Romsey maintained their pressure for the rest of the first half and, had a little more composure been evident, they could well have been rewarded with further points. Unfortunately, they failed to convert a plethora of opportunities.

Try as they might, Southampton attempted to wrest the initiative from the home side but could not break a resolute home defence marshalled by the ever-impressive Graham Noble; a drop goal registered their only points in the first period.

The second half started slowly and this suited Southampton. They took advantage of the malaise that had momentarily had set into the home ranks, culminating in Romsey allowing the visitors to get their first shunt on in the scrummage.

Romsey's slackness continued, and despite snuffing out the attempted eight move, Southampton brought the ball back down the blind side. A neatly placed grubber kick saw the Southampton centre react first to give the visitors a try; they converted it to gain a 10-5 lead.

This spurred Romsey back into action. The great majority of the game was played in the Saints half, where Romsey continued to apply pressure. However despite some good and well directed play, the home side lacked that clinical edge to make the most of their good play.

Southampton, to their credit, stuck to the task of defending and spoiling and this was enough to prevent Romsey from getting over their line.

The game ended 10-5 and a dejected Romsey side left the field ruing wasted opportunities and aware of silly mistakes. However, they were buoyed by the knowledge that they had played most of the good rugby on the day and had shown the spirit that will be necessary to continue to improve in this league.