Alton v Saints

Unlike last week's game against US Portsmouth, Southampton started brightly against Alton and took the lead early on. The ball was moved quickly through the backs to right winger Femi Adeniren, who showed a clean pair of heels to go round his man and touch down. Dave Griffiths was unlucky with the conversion, giving Southampton a five nil lead.

Alton narrowed the gap when Saints were penalised in front of the posts after joining a ruck from the side. From the restart, the packs lined up to the right, only for Griff to prod the ball short on the left, for Ward and Molyneux to chase. The ball was gathered by the Alton winger, but the Saints pair bundled him into touch to win the throw. But Saints struggled all afternoon at the line out, with Alton stealing a number against the head which cost Southampton valuable possession.

The backs were looking on good form, with outside centre Aaron Nelson putting in some massive tackles and making some threatening breaks. At the scrum, props Kev Simmonds and Marcus Coffin were causing all sorts of problems for the Alton front row and the pack stole a number of scrums as Alton wheeled under the pressure.

Saints second try came when Pierre Molyneux threw a big miss pass to find Mark Waterer in space. He fed Dave Ward on his left, who beat one man and then offloaded to Pierre in support. He was smothered by the Alton defence but managed to ship to ball on to Rob Greenaway, who looked like he might reach the line himself. He was stopped a yard short but the ball was recycled quickly to the left, where Pierre Molyneux rounded off an excellent try by diving over in the corner. Griff couldn't find the target with the conversion, making the score 3-10.

But despite their dominance, Saints still succumbed to a lapse in defence which saw Alton reduce the deficit. The number eight picked up from a scrum and offloaded in the tackle to a supporting flanker. There may have been suspicions of a forward pass, which itself was fumbled but adjudged to have come off the knees, before he dived on the ball over the line. The conversion was missed leaving Saints a slender 8-10 lead.

Alton had a chance to steal the lead right on the stroke of half time when they were awarded a penalty for off side. But the kick went wide and bounced dead, making the score 8-10 at the break.

The second half also started well for Southampton, regaining the ball from their own kick off before spending much of the first ten minutes camped in the Alton 22. But they couldn't break down the Alton defence and only came away with three points from a Dave Griffiths penalty.

Alton then went down to 14 men, when the number 7 was sin binned for a late tackle, but they refused to give up and drew level whilst a man down. After a long kick was fumbled in front of the Saints posts, the number eight picked up from the resulting scrum. He was stopped short, but had men in numbers behind him. A series of drives from the Alton pack took the ball to within yards of the line before they picked up and dived over for the score. The conversion was missed, tying the score at 13 apiece.

Despite their early dominance, in the final ten minutes Saints were struggling to keep the ball and would probably now have settled for the draw. But even that slipped away when again their discipline cost them a valuable three points in front of the posts. The final score was 16-13 and it proved to be the same old story for Southampton. Another game they should have won against a much higher league side. Again the opposition were left wondering how Saints find themselves at the bottom of the league, with a side clearly capable of playing great rugby.

Southampton must now win both their remaining fixtures- against Eastleigh in a fortnight and Romsey on the final day of the season.