AFTER a break with no game last week Romsey took to the field feeling optimistic whilst knowing that they faced a stiff challenge against a well drilled Fawley side.

Romsey were again missing regular players through injury and unavailability but still put out a fairly strong team against the visitors.

Romsey‘s optimism was snuffed out very quickly when a Fawley player charged down an attempted clearance kick from within Romsey‘s 22 and charged over for the first try which went unconverted. Fawley continued to threaten and after only seven minutes more strong running brought a try in the corner which was again unconverted.

At this stage Romsey were struggling to stay in the game and soon gave away a penalty in front of their posts which the Fawley kicker duly converted giving the visitors a 13 nil lead which was soon increased by means of a converted try.

Finally Romsey began to apply their game plan and began to compete against their larger opponents winning a penalty themselves. However a poor kick failed to find touch and gifted the ball back to the opposition. This unfortunately became a feature of the game with Romsey’s kicking out of hand proving to be very poor and frequently handing possession back to Fawley.

Finally Romsey won a penalty near the opposition posts and Isaac Pitt was able to put Romsey on the scoreboard at 20-3 down.

Having already lost two players to injury one of Romsey‘s senior players was then called from the pitch for a family emergency (happily not too serious in the end) and so Romsey had used three substitutes before half time. This seemed to spur Romsey into action and after a period of pressure Romsey recycled the ball and finally scored in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed but Romsey went into the half time break losing 20-8 but with glimmer of hope of getting back into the game.

Fawley started the second half strongly scoring yet another try but Romsey then had their best period of the match pinning Fawley back into their own half and often into their own 22 metre zone for significant period. Romsey came close to scoring at one point but otherwise were unable to penetrate a well organised Fawley defence.

During the last quarter of the match Fawley increased the tempo of their game and this, coupled with a tiring Romsey side, led to three more tries so that Romsey ended the match well beaten and on the wrong end of a 49-8 hiding.

Fawley now sit at the top of Division I and perhaps Romsey should not be too downhearted bearing in mind there that they have a young development side with a number of new players. Currently Romsey sit third from bottom of the table but there are a number of winnable games and it is reasonable to think that Romsey can finish this season in mid table.

Romsey are at home again on Saturday against Portsmouth and must aim to achieve their first win of the season.