Saints v Fordingbridge

Southampton made a number of forced changes to the side that beat East Dorset, with Pete Fox stepping in at prop, Dave Ward moving to scrum half and Ben Rawlings return on the left wing. Julian Robbins moved to outside centre with Mark Waterer adding his pace at full back.

Southampton started the game with a strong breeze at their backs and Dave Griffiths used it to keep Fordingbridge pegged back in their own 22. Although there had been much talk of the threat of the Bridge backs, the Southampton defence was outstanding and closed down the runners with some big tackles, notably from Tony Cador and Dave Griffiths. The forwards also had a large part to play as they outmuscled the Fordingbridge pack and made it very hard for them to create an attacking platform. The Southampton back line has been looking dangerous in recent weeks and they nearly took the lead when Mark Waterer cut between the ‘Bridge centres, only to be stopped short by some desperate cover defence.

With both defences on form it was never going to be easy to rack up points, so when Fordingbridge were penalised about 30 meters out, Captain Pierre gave the ball to Dave Griffiths who slotted over for three points. He added a second shortly after, giving Saints a six point lead. But Fordingbridge has a number of chances themselves, including a breakaway from the centre who made forty yards before being tackled short of the line by Mark Waterer and Dave Ward. Soon after they got off the mark when the ball was worked out to the right winger who found himself on an overlap and beat the covering defender to touch down in the corner. The conversion was missed but Fordingbridge were back in the game at 6-5.

The second half saw Southampton apply even more pressure in their hunt for a try. The forwards had a superb afternoon, shoving the Bridge pack backwards at the scrums and making good ground with their rolling mauls. They showed great versatility when hooker Ginger went off, meaning a reorganisation of the scrum that saw Marcus Coffin move to hooker, Mark Mauger to prop and Pete Tong at second row. He wasted no time getting the ball in hand and running hard at the opposition, while Pete Fox and Ian Budd also had great games supporting runners and crashing on the second phase. The fly halves exchanged penalties, taking the score to 9-8, before Southampton found themselves camped on the Fordingbridge line for series of attacking 5 yard scrums. A huge shove from the forwards drove to within 2 yards of the line and Tony Cador picked up and dived for the line, only to find himself held up by the winger.

But with 5 minutes to go, the slender lead vanished when Saints were penalised for an early tackle. The fly half calmly slotted the kick over and Fordingbridge stole the lead for the first time in the match. The final twist of the knife was soon to follow however, when Southampton found their defence stretched wide on the left. The ball was quickly moved to the inside centre who found a great angle through the defence to cross under the posts. The conversion was a formality, making the final score 9-18.

Despite the huge disappointment of losing in the final minutes, Southampton have to take huge credit for their performance. Fordingbridge are top of the table and even they acknowledged that they were pushed harder on Saturday than they had been all season. If Saints continue like this, the results will surely come.

The next game is New Milton away in the Cup on Sunday 8th February.