After turning over one of the fancied sides in the division, you would have thought Isle of Wight captain Richard Sawle would have been slightly more elated than he seemed after seeing his side maintain second place in Division 1.

Farnborough, who have cleaned up their act and mounted a concerted challenge over recent weeks, were wiped away by the superb second-half showing by the Islanders in which they scored four tries in trouncing the north Hampshire men 33-5.

It took a while for the visitors to get going and that was the main source of Sawle's frustration as, with tongue firmly in cheek, he said: "Someone asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I answered two second-halves, please!"

It has been the story of their season. After losing their opening fixture with Trojans, they have finished sides off in the second half after flattering to deceive in the first. "It is a good job that the side have learnt to be patient," added the skipper.

"It is always nice to go on the road and get a good result like this, but we did not have it all our own way," felt Sawle.

Their Island neighbours Sandown & Shanklin did them no favours at all, taking a heavily weakened side to leaders Guernsey and returning 78-8 losers. The Channel men still top the league by a single point.

New Milton & District are up to third, but they were given a scare by an improving Millbrook side before closing them out by 32-20.

Trailing 18-3 at the interval, 'Brook came back strongly, scoring three tries to Milton's two, but it was not enough to lift the city strugglers off the second-bottom rung of the table.

Eastleigh told a similar story of 'much improved, but no win' in their neighbourly fixture with Trojans, who climbed back up the table to fourth, just three points behind the leaders.

It was only a late try from the Stoneham Lane side that clinched the victory as Eastleigh battled heroically in defence, especially through Phil Campling and Connor Gately, and they were rewarded when skipper Wayne Hayward scored in the first half.

As it proved, it was not enough to stave off a sixth loss of the season and the gap between themselves and fourth-bottom Sandown & Shanklin increased to four points.

Those cast adrift are still held up by Fawley, who could have stolen their first points of the season from Fareham Heathens, but the home side hung on for a 16-12 win.

Two tries from winger Nick Bowden led Heathens but their captain, Mark Dunning, openly conceded that "The game could have very easily gone either way, but we should have put more points on them and taken them out of the game early in the first half".

It was not like that, though, and both sides will have taken a considerable amount of positives from the action.

In Division 2, Fordingbridge have moved further clear of trouble at the bottom end with a satisfactory 14-3 victory over Aldershot & Fleet. They did, however, have to soak up some sustained pressure from the visitors at the end before sealing win number two of the season.

The table is still headed by Nomads, who had to dig deep before sending Ellingham & Ringwood down to a 23-12 defeat. They were 12-5 down at the break but three tries in the second half edged the Portsmouth based side to success.

Alresford are just behind in second and maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 30-7 triumph over winless Kingsclere.