Saints 40 - 5 New Milton

The Old Boys reunion brought a good crowd to Test Park and the home side put on an impressive display against the side who started the game just one place below them in the league.

Southampton fielded a largely unchanged side from last week and on Saturday they continued to produce excellent rugby. They threatened the New Milton line with their first attack, as fly half Tom Morton's chip bounced kindly for Ryan Keary in front of the posts but as he gathered the ball the ref pulled play back, ruling Keary was in front of the kicker.

But Southampton kept the pressure on in New Milton's 22 and earned two penalties for handling infringements. Tom Morton slotted both away comfortably, giving Southampton an early six point lead.

Josh Pitt then made an excellent 40 yard break from inside his own 22, but he was unable to offload to Robins or Ward in support and the defence wrapped him up. At the lineout, Ian Budd showed some excellent sleight of hand as he caught the ball awkwardly, one-handed, yet somehow flicked it perfectly out of the back of his hand to Branty at scrum half.

The first try came from hooker Andrew "Ginger" Dymott, who won himself a bottle of scotch in the sweepstake when he took a return pass from Tony Cador at a five yard line out and forced his way over in the corner. Tom Morton has been in excellent kicking form and he made the difficult angle look easy as he put the ball between the uprights for the extras. Thirteen nil to Southampton.

The ref may have been younger than the bottle of Cinzano behind the club bar, but he controlled the game excellently and refused to allow tempers to boil over. When the New Milton hooker threw a punch directly in front of the official he had no hesitation in sending him to do ten minutes on the Naughty Step.

Southampton dominated much of the half although New Milton did threaten on a couple of occasions, mostly through excellent solo running from their centre. But Southampton are defending well at the moment, and turned over a number of balls and drove the New Milton pack backwards. Scrum half Paul Brant controlled the pack excellently and bagged himself Southampton's second try as he darted through a gap in the middle of a ruck and dived over to score. This time the conversion was missed and the score at half time was 18-0.

The second half saw more of the same from Southampton and they used their dominance up front to create excellent platforms for the backs, who were getting the ball wide and attacking the wings whenever possible. Their third try came as Julian Robins went outside his man, drew the covering defender and fed Tony Cador who appeared from nowhere to add to his impressive tally for the season. Again Tom Morton found the target from a wide angle taking Saints' lead to 25.

The addition of fly half Tom Morton has added an extra dimension to Southampton's game, and when the ball came to him with nothing on outside he clipped over a drop goal to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

But after having seen the ref sin bin the New Milton hooker for punching, Ginger couldn't be outdone and did ten minutes of his own for exactly the same offence. The loss of the hooker caused some confusion at the lineout, with Tony Cador trying his luck at throwing in. His two efforts won't make it into any textbooks, but Ian Budd did well to salvage at least one of them! ,

While Saints were down to fourteen, New Milton snatched a try as their centre took a quick tap penalty and found a gap in the Saints defence. The kick was unsuccessful making the score 28-5.

Southamton responded with a massive drive from the forwards which took them inside the New Milton 22. The ball went out through the backs where Julian Robins touched down in the left corner. No problem for Morts with the kick, 35-0.

Southampton should have had another when they got the ball out side to Josh Pitt on the right. He popped back inside to Ryan Keary, who crossed the line and sidestepped another to get the ball under the sticks. But it all went wrong for Keary, who then had the ball knocked out of his hands by the defender as he went to touch the ball down - a mistake which cost him dearly in the bar afterwards!

Saints finished the game off in style as the backs got the ball wide quickly, but were held up short of the line. At the breakdown, replacement Marcus Coffin came charging at pace from depth and he drove the ball to within inches. Pierre Molyneux was first there, and he picked up and dived over to cap an excellent team performance.

Another excellent team performance from Southampton, although scrum half Paul Brant earned himself the Man of the Match award as he bossed his forwards brilliantly, made a number of darting breaks and put in some crucial tackles. Saints move up to fifth and face fourth place Romsey next week.