Romsey will be pleased to start the season with a home win – a rare event last term – after beating New Milton 15-7.

New Milton did not venture into Romsey’s 22 for 30 minutes but still found themselves 7-0 up at the break with a converted try.

But the visitors had a good idea of what they would face after the break with the home side being disallowed two tries and fumbling a certain score in the first 40 minutes.

Loosehead Alex Hill charged over for a try within minutes of the start of the second half as Romsey stepped up a gear.

But just as the home side were getting back into the game they were forced into positional changes following an ankle injury to second row Tristan Pattison and fly-half Matt Towl suffering concussion.

But tries from Mark Sergison and skipper Gareth Roberts helped seal an important victory for Romsey.

Coach Gary Banks said: “It was a solid performance all round with some great individual performances, not least from man-of-the match Andy Hancock. This gives us something to work on for our trip to Southampton next week.”

New Milton’s new coach Brendan Treacey was not too disappointed with his side’s performance, apart from giving away too many penalties in the second half. “We lost a game that was ours,” he said.

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