Southampton and Romsey Second Teams joined up for their first official match as Saint Romsey, away to Christchurch. Christchurch are rebuilding after a difficult couple of years and a good crowd turned out to see the return of league rugby to East Dorset.

Southampton's Dave Ward led the team, with Romsey's Nick Creal and Tristan Pattinson adding their years of experience. Youngsters Buster Gray, Jamie Stibbs and Ethan Clay made their senior debuts with Saints' Chris Magrane partnering with Romsey's Oli Coburn in the centres.

Southampton took an early chance of three points with Ryan Morrell slotting home a penalty. But Christchurch hit back with two quick tries to take the lead. Southampton then conceded a penalty try with the ref deeming they were ahead of the back foot when defending on their try line.

Christchurch then went down to fourteen men when a late tackle sparked a furious reaction from the prop, who swung a wild haymaker. It didn't connect, but the ref had no choice but to send him off.

The man advantage allowed Saint Romsey back into the match and Dave Ward grabbed a try when Christchurch failed to deal with a kick over the top. Ward charged down the attempted clearance and dived on the loose ball behind the posts, giving Morrell a simple conversion.

Christchurch relied on a number of powerful runners and they continued to find holes in the defence, with Saint Romsey probably guilty of giving them too much time to get up to speed with the ball. They were equally physical in defence, although they were also penalised for a series of high or late tackles - notably on scrum half Buster Gray who was absolutely flattened long after the ball had gone.

Saint Romsey grabbed a second try late on when Ryan Morell chipped over the top and gathered his own kick, but it was little more than a consolation at this point as Christchurch ran out 41 - 17 winners.

With thanks to Egg Shaped Photography for the pictures.