Millbrook were left reeling when a stomach bug ripped apart their team on Saturday.

But it was opponents Fareham Heathens who were feeling sick at the finish after a 27-3 defeat.

"Considering what we have been through this week and how most of the lads are feeling at the moment, this was a fantastic achievement," said Millbrook team manager Ala Day.

"Dave Geddes couldn't even show up, Mike Phippard and Dominic Sales greeted Heathens by being sick on the sidelines and skipper Dean Weaver, Mike Mulcahy, Shannon Passingham, Richard Goodridge and myself are all not great today.

"Put all that together and you can see how much of a performance it was."

Millbrook players were dropping out all week becaues of the bug, leaving them them selecting the side a quarter of an hour before kick-off. But the mid-table outfit outplayed Heathens in every phases, scoring five tries to a single penalty.

It has cost Heathens ground on unbeaten leaders Trojans and second-placed Sandown & Shanklin.

Playing with three centres across the middle of the park, with Graham Hill at fly-half and Dominic Sales partnering Pravin Seneviratne in midfield, caused the visitors all sorts of problems. Had the home side a regular kicker - Day missed four attempts before handing over to Wayne Allen who hit the only successful effort - the margin would have been even more.

Heathens' defeat leaves them fourth, four points behind Sandown & Shanklin in second. The Island side maintained their incredible season with another hard fought 21-15 home victory over New Milton & District, who have also lost ground on the top two.

Despite holding their own in the lineouts and the scrums, Milton could not contain the fitter and smarter Sandown backs, who ran the ball well and found good angles from which to run at the visitors.

Winger Tyrone Holden found his way through for the Foresters' only scores, the first a charged down clearance kick on the Sandown 22 and the second when he chased down a kick ahead and cleverly kept it in play to win the race to the touchdown.

It was not enough to bring the spoils back to the mainland and Sandown remain Trojans' main challengers at the top of the table, just four points adrift of the Stoneham Lane outfit with a game in hand.

Pete Surtees's side did enough to keep their 100 per cent record intact at the halfway stage of the season with a four-try triumph over winless Alresford, who he praised for making them work hard for the victory.

Surtees still felt his side weren't firing, despite Russell Clarke's brace and Ian Hudson and Matt Knight scores, coupled with 14 points from Tim Zeale's boot in the 34-8 win.

Nomads climbed away from the relegation zone with a thumping 44-15 win over Isle of Wight, courtesy of a Matt Duff brace and four further tries.

Farnborough have gone from top spot to next-to-bottom in two months after a 18-5 reverse at US Portsmouth, following a two-point deduction for fielding an unregistered player back in October.