Champions finish league season in style

Despite the absence of regulars Pete Fox, Chris Milne, Rob Gould, Mark Waterer, James Filmer, Julian Robins and Chris Alston, Southampton showed their strength in depth as they proved too strong for Locksheath scoring six tries to one to maintain their unbeaten home record in the league.

Stand-in Martin McDonald opened the scoring from outside centre, taking advantage of a series of missed tackles inside the first few minutes to score under the posts. He then doubled his tally moments later, again using his strength to power through the tackle and cross the try line wide on the left.

Southampton dominated play and Locksheath struggled to gain any real momentum, with James Mankievicz stealing all but a few of Puma’s scrums against the head. The lineout was also put under pressure, making it very hard for the visitors to break out of their own half.

Next on the scoresheet for Southampton was Aaron Enock, making his debut for the Ones, who benefited from the footballing skills of Hector Bevitt-Smith by chasing down the scrum half’s series of kicks and narrowly beating the number 9 to touch the ball down behind the line. Ryan Keary added the conversion.

The bonus point was wrapped up inside the first half as Mark Price took advantage of a loose Pumas’ lineout to steal the ball at the back and force his way through the defence.

In the second half Southampton remained dominant with Mankievicz stealing every scrum against the head, but the champions lost some structure as they fell foul of a number of dubious refereeing decision. As their backs division became frustrated at their lack of ball, Locksheath looked to put some points on the board with an optimistic penalty attempt, but it fell short of the target.

Instead it was Southampton who added to their total through Pete Toland, who could not be stopped as he took a crash ball from a ruck and powered over from close range.

Locksheath did find something to cheer about though as they grabbed a try after a series of penalties put Southampton on the back foot, with a forward diving over for a consolation try.

Southampton rounded it off with their sixth try as James Mankievicz capped an excellent personal display with his first try for Southampton on his birthday, touching the ball down with a triumphant cheer.

The game was scrappy at points, but Southampton’s quality shone through to demonstrate how far the side has come since the first game of the season when they struggled past Locksheath 24-26. With just two league defeats and a draw, Southampton finish the season eight points clear of second placed Aldershot & Fleet having racked up twelve 4-try bonus points in a season which has seen them notch up over 200 more points than the next highest scorers.