Stoneham Park are bottom of Hampshire Division Three. The 'strongest team in the league structure' as they are holding everyone else up! So this should have been an easy victory for local rivals Eastleigh, being two divisions higher.

That is certainly what most would have thought, but it certainly was not the case as Stoneham gave as good as they got and going into the last few minutes of this Hampshire Worthington's Bowl first round game, were still in the game they eventually lost 17-10.

Granted, Eastleigh were severely weakened by key players' working arrangements. They were forced to blood two 17-year-olds in Dale Brenton and the impressive scrum-half John Lynch alongside coach Hughie Noonan and veteran 44-year-old Joe Butler.

But do not take anything away from Tiernan Simmons' side, who have scored just five points in three league games so far this campaign. While Eastleigh had the better platform from which to base their play, Stoneham enjoyed themselves on the break.

Playing with the considerable slope in the favour in the first half, Simmons' speculative hack kick was too heavy for the chasing Tom Castle to catch before it went in-goal. It was the first chance of the game after 15 minutes of sizing each other up.

The dependable Steve Lines hit a drop-goal after 24 minutes that was reminiscent of the man he had watched from close quarters 24 hours earlier, Jonny Wilkinson, but the game erupted, almost inexplicably on the half hour when both sides became embroiled in a free-for-all punch-up.

It seemed to start innocuously but resulted in Stoneham prop Lee McLean being given ten minutes cooling off - and any number of players could have joined him on the sidelines.

Once all had died down, both sides got back to playing rugby and Peter Noonan's break upfield allowed Wayne Hayward to use his pace to sprint to the line, skipping through the tackles on his way to the line for the lead. Jim Longhurst added the extra points.

On the stroke of half-time, Simmons broke through some very lackadaisical tackling to move close to the line, where he offloaded to the waiting John King to give Stoneham the interval advantage, once Lines had hit the conversion.

Lines missed the chance to stretch the lead when he was short with his penalty attempt, which proved costly in the end as on the three-quarter mark Joe Butler found acres of space on the blindside to run from the 22, weaving his way to Eastleigh's second try.

Arnie Payne, who badly injured his neck and shoulder during the opening league game of the season at Romsey and needed hospital treatment, made his return as a replacement.

But the game was up for Stoneham, as they tried to battle back up the hill and their hopes finally faded when centre Martin Kirby used the scrum claimed against the head near the home line to go through under the posts.

It was cruel on Stoneham Park, who had belittled their league position against a largely youthful Eastleigh side, playing at a pace that was alien to the Hampshire Three strugglers.

Skipper Simmons was delighted with his team's performance and hoped they could carry this on into the league season that recommences at the end of November. "We were up for it with it being a local derby and we have some ties with the Eastleigh club.

"We could have nicked it at the end, but I think they were fitter than us with it being such a physical game that we are not particularly used to."

Eastleigh coach Mick Meyrick felt his side created enough of a platform but made life harder than it should have been. "We are suffering from a lot of injuries at the moment, but we did enough to win the game."