The scoreline read Southampton 15 Petersfield 13 but whether the city side actually deserved what may be a crucial two-point boost to their London Division 4 South-West survival hopes is worth debating.

The comments of a Petersfield member: "How on earth did we not win that," against those of Southampton stalwart fly-half David Griffiths: "That was probably our worst performance of the season," may go a way to answering the question.

Whether the game merited four sin-bin decisions, three of them against Petersfield, is another topic of discussion.

On the face of it, the east Hampshire visitors deserved to win but didn't - and that will have to make up for the previous encounters when the roles were reversed.

Chris Milne gave the hosts the lead before Scott Chesney replied while Southampton were down to 14.

Then Ian Palmer scored a tap-penalty induced try for Saints after Griffiths had posted a penalty.

That remained the status quo until Dave Wheeler kicked a penalty for the visitors, although it could have been seven points instead of three when Bim McKay got to the loose ball only for the try to be disallowed.

While the third of the Petersfield players, George Rees, was banished for ten minutes shortly afterward, skipper Tony Cador ran in for the winning score.

"We never got together as a team and consequently could not get any structure to the game," continued Griffiths. "But there are three positives to take from the match.

"Most importantly we won, we did not give up and we can play a lot better."

The victory moves Southampton to eighth, ahead of Cranleigh and basement returnees Trojans.

Their 31-3 reverse to London Irish Amateur, coupled with Cranleigh's postponement at Farnham, meant the Stoneham Lane outfit went back to bottom place on points difference and they face an uphill battle to save themselves from a return to Hampshire One.

A powerful second-half showing clinched the win for the Sunbury-based side after Trojans had held them to just 12-3 at the break, through James Pennington's penalty.

At the other end, Tottonians stepped closer to promotion with another impressive enough league away win at Old Emanuel, after they moved into comfort mode in the opening quarter through tries from Chris Smith and Mike Searle.

Emanuel, who beat Barnes the previous week in the Surrey Cup, put up a sure defence to stunt Totts further but it was more than reciprocated in return as they allowed the home side just the sole score late on.

"We are doing enough to keep winning," commented Bob Millard, the Totts coach.

"We really opened them up but did not finish it, but that will come and I was very happy with the performance, especially Chris Smith and Gareth Edwards, who had big games in defence."

Havant and Basingstoke's scheduled National League Division 3 South matches were both postponed due to the weather, although the latter's cancellation was nothing to do with their own surface.

With the amount of snow that besieged East Anglia in the latter part of last week, Norfolk police advised North Walsham not to make the journey south, considering the M11 motorway too dangerous.

Havant's home game with Weston-super-Mare fell foul to a waterlogged pitch.