Southampton 6 - 12 Romsey

Southampton went into the today's game confident they had the beating of Romsey, but were made to pay for poor discipline after an awful first half.

The game couldn't have started any worse for Saints as Romsey scored with first attack of the game. The ball was worked down the Saints' left, before a tackle halted the move on the Saints' twenty-two.

But the defence had been drawn in, leaving Romsey with an overlap out wide. They moved the ball out and the extra numbers provided them with an easy run in under the posts. The conversion left Saints facing an early seven point deficit.

Despite playing some excellent rugby earlier in the season, Southampton struggled to get into the game early on and found themselves on the back foot for much of the first half. When they did manage to go forward it was largely through individual breaks and they found themselves unable to put further phases together to go forward.

Instead it was Romsey who added to their score as the forwards caught a lineout and attacked up the channel with a series of drives. With the ball under control and out of reach of the stretched defence, they rolled the maul over the line to score. The conversion was missed, taking the score to 0-12.

Southampton could have gone further behind but managed to hold Romsey up as they bundled the ball over the line again.

The half ended better for Saints, who finally started putting multiple attacking phases together and threatening the Romsey line. Alex Scott and Julian Robins combined well on the left wing, while Kevin Simmons and Rob Greenaway also worked well together to make ground through the middle.

Julian Robins made a great break through between the Romsey centres and looked like he might make it over the line but was well tackled by the full back. In the end, Tom Morton took Southampton's only points of the half with a late penalty when Romsey were penalised for not releasing.

Southampton showed plenty of promise in the second half with a number of dangerous breaks coming close to scoring. Josh Pitt caught a high ball just outside his own twenty-two and sidestepped the oncoming man to find a gap in the defence. He cut across the pitch from the Saints' right and, after running about eighty meters, found himself up against the Romsey right wing ten yards out. But the tackle was good and Saints' support were unable to keep up with his angled run.

Saints kept the pressure on for most of the game but every good opportunity seemed to be ruined by an unnecessary penalty with the visitors' try line begging. Tom Morton was unsuccessful with an optimistic forty yard effort, but did add a penalty with fifteen minutes on the clock.

The final minutes saw Saints camped in the Romey half, knowing a converted try would steal the points. Julian Robins came closest as he cut through the Romsey centres off a five yard scrum, but he was stopped under the posts by an excellent tackle from the full back.

Romsey nearly sealed the game right at the death as they seized on a Saints fumble and came close to scoring a breakaway try, but a last ditch tackle stopped the attack a yard short. But this proved to be the last action of the game as the ref's whistle signalled a 6-12 win for Romsey.

The second half was a vast improvement on the first for Saints, but too many unnecessary penalties ruined some promising chances. The forwards did manage to get their impressive rolling maul working at times, while the backs looked dangerous when they got the ball.

An excellent performance from Josh Pitt earned him the man-of-the-match jacket as he saw lots of the ball and made a series of threatening attacks. He also tirelessly chased Mort's kicks, putting pressure on the catchers with some excellent tackling. Probably his only mistake of the game was to spill a high ball, directly in front of his mates. A sympathetic bunch, they were all too keen to offer their full vocal "support" from the touchline.......