The third round draw of the Powergen Intermediate Cup will see Havant and Winchester flying the flag for Hampshire, although they moved through to Wednesday's hat in widely varying fashions.
Havant's young guns, minus virtually a whole 15 of regular first-team regulars, put a similarly experimental Portsmouth side to the sword, running in ten tries in a 60-12 thrashing, while Winchester squeezed past Andover 28-23 in a thriller at the Goodship Ground.
It was a stunning comeback from the county capital men, led predominantly by veteran fly-half Martin Livesey, who kicked 18 points as they sliced down a 14-point deficit to run out winners.
In a typically physical contest, unsurprisingly considering the derby nature of the fixture and realising that these two sides rarely do meet in competitive action, Andover came out all guns blazing and were 23-3 to the good by the interval.
But with Livesey pulling the strings and key players Rob West and Rolf Stratford coming on to "make a big impact", according to their coach Mike Marchant, the visitors went through the second period without conceding, while scoring 25 points themselves.
"It was a good result in the end," added Marchant, "but we dropped our level in the first half and almost paid the price for it."
Havant, with two players making their first XV debuts and two others irregular starters for the club, made light work of disposing of Portsmouth.
Throw in Neil McGovern's broken leg suffered while playing for Harlequins Academy on Saturday morning and you can understand the problems the Hooks Lane side are encountering at present.
Those problems were not on show after all had enjoyed England's victory over South Africa as they ripped Portsmouth apart, especially in the second half where the visitors posted seven of their ten tries.
A brace apiece from number eight Matthew Morgan, debutant Adi Taverner and full-back Keith Molyneux, who also hit five conversions, took them into the third round without a hitch and chairman of Rugby Adam King was very pleased.
"It was good for the sizable Havant contingent among the crowd to see that we have a strength in depth capable of performance like this against a side that is only one division below us, and could have been playing us in London One this year if they had won the play-off."
What odds of a Havant v Winchester third round tie when the draw is announced this week?
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article