Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia were spearheading the European challenge at the halfway stage of the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Japan yesterday.

It's the first time the two 22-year-olds have been head-to-head for victory since their intense rivalry in junior international golf back in the 1990s when Rose from Hampshire was hailed as the best young prospect in England and Garcia the best young talent in Spain.

They have both come into this tournament on the back of top-ten finishes on the Volvo European Order of Merit with Garcia in sixth place and Rose ninth.

That's how close it is between these two young gladiators and at the Phoenix Club in Miyazaki yesterday both players finished the day in a tie for second place, four shots behind the Japanese player Kaname Yokoo, who is a rising star on the US PGA Tour.

Rose followed up his first day's 66 with a two under par 69 which left him with a 36-hole aggregate of 137 - seven under par.

Garcia, who got round in 68, moved up alongside Rose and Myan Zaw Moe.

Of the three players, the Spaniard was perhaps the most upbeat after picking up birdies at four of his last six holes.

But Rose was the essence of control and rhythm. He didn't drop a shot all day and made his birdies with "five-feet tap-ins."

The only frustration for the 22-year-old from Fleet is that he didn't make any more longer putts. "It's as well as I've swung the club for a while," he said afterwards.

Among the strong European contingent on the pleasant seaside course was Ulster's Darren Clarke, the first round leader, who slipped back but was still just one shot behind the three-way tie for second place.

Lee Westwood, like Rose a past winner in Japan, continued his painstaking recovery with a 68 for a halfway total of 139 - three under par - which moved him on to the same score as world number one Tiger Woods.

lHampshire's Matt Blackey was joint last after the second day of the BMW Asian Open after following a bogey-strewn first round 80 with a three over par 75 in Taiwan yesterday.

It's a tournament the graduate from the European Challenge Tour will certainly want to forget. He quickly added three more bogies to his overnight score then got back to level par for his round with three birdies.

But the 16th and 17th holes, which cost him four shots on Thursday, were again troublesome. He dropped shots at both and another bogey at the last meant he finished 11 over par - ten outside the halfway cut in this the first European Tour event of the new 2003 season.

Another south coast hopeful who missed out on the last two days was Poole's Lee James, who topped last season's Europeal Challenge Tour order of merit.

Leading the way at the halfway stage in Taiwan was the tall, talented Dutchman Maerten Lafeber at 12 under, four strokes ahead of Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Trevor Immelman, the rising young star from South Africa.