Rugby - and rugby weather - returned to Test Park as Southampton faced Locks Heath in a wet and windy pre-season friendly.

Locks Heath opened the scoring early on with their big inside centre crashing through to touch down under the posts. The conversion gave the visitors an early 0-7 lead.

Southampton then started putting together some decent rugby, with Jack Leadbitter, Ian Mwau and Kev Simmons leading the charge. Pumas conceded a number of penalties for high tackles and killing the ball at the breakdown, which gave debutant Jack Gregory the chance to kick Southampton deep into Locks Heath territory. A series of drives from the forwards took Saints to the Pumas' try line, before Kev Simmons took a crash ball and powered through the defence to score. Gregory added the conversion to level the scores at 7-7.

Tyler Ross felt he had scored for Saints but the ref ruled he had been held up over the line. Saints then had another try disallowed after Chris Alston beat his man on the outside, doing very well to stay infield. He touched it down, but the ref said no. Nobody was quite sure why, but we think he thought it had been knocked on.

Saints went back to basics for the next try with a catch and drive from a five metre line out. As the rolling maul crossed the line it was Nick Cazeaux who touched down for Saints' second try. Jack Gregory was unlucky with the conversion as it bounced off the crossbar.

Gregory left the field soon after that, twinging a hamstring as he kicked for touch. Robbie Ashby stepped into fly half with Josh Fearon coming into inside centre. No further scores in the first half, meaning the score was 12-7 at half time.

Saints made a number of replacements for the second half, swapping the whole front row. Alex Hill, Cam and Marcus Coffin came on which gave the Southampton scrum more stability. But Pumas grabbed the next try as their outside centre cut back in catching the defence wrong-footed to go under the posts. The conversion gave them a 12-14 lead.

A fantastic restart from Robbie Ashby bounced a metre short of the try line and then off the pitch, giving Southampton the chance to put pressure on the Locks Heath line out. Steve Munter competed well at the front and caused the Pumas jumper to knock it back wildly, with Pumas scrambling to tidy up the loose ball on their own line.

Cam Coffin teamed up with Dave Ward to counter-ruck Pumas off the ball, with the ball ending up loose on the floor. Ward gathered it and put a chip over the top of the defence and chased himself, with the Pumas full back just winning the race to ball over the try line.

More replacements for Saints saw Paul Rutherford come in at scrum half, Pascal Garrard onto the wing and Tom Laycock on a flanker. As the game entered the final five minutes, another great kick over the top from Josh Fearon nearly put Rico Scala in at the corner but again Pumas were just first to the ball and were able to kick to touch. But the kick lacked any distance and gave Southampton an attacking line out five metres out. The ball went to Tom Laycock and another superb rolling maul powered him over the line to snatch the win for Southampton, 17-14.

This was a good, tough test for both teams in difficult conditions. Some excellent performances from Jack Leadbitter, Chris Alston and Ian Mwau, but Man of the Match went to Kev Simmons for his try scoring first half performance. Dick of the Day went to Nick Cazeaux - not for the worst line out throw we'll probably see all season which failed to go five meters - but for telling Southampton the kick off was at 3pm whilst telling Lock Heath it was 2pm. What a Fixtures Secretary!