London 3 South-West

TROJANS were entitled to head up the M3 in confident mood after studying their opponents’ statistics over the opening games of the season.

Indeed, the Stoneham based club managed a fairly comfortable 48-22 victory over London 3 South-West basement club Basingstoke.

However the north Hampshire side did show signs that they have more to offer as they made the most of a purple patch in the second half.

By that time, though, Trojans had all but sewn the game up. The bonus point was already in the bag as two tries from Jack Groves, one each from Mark Greenhalgh and Sam Semple, a penalty try and a Toogi Long conversion had put them 29-0 up.

Trojans quickly put another dozen points on the scoreboard after the break. Alex Williams got the ball over the line, Tom Stevenson added the extra two points and soon after charged down the wing to go over the whitewash himself.

But credit to Basingstoke who gained confidence from a try in the corner and went over another two times, converting one score, to put Trojans on the back foot.

The unlikely comeback was stopped in its tracks when Williams got his second try for Trojans and Stevenson converted but the highlight of the game was still to come.

Battling Basingstoke brought up their first bonus point of the season when they got their fourth try off the back of a lineout.

New Milton also put in a valiant fightback at Weybridge Vandals – but it was also too little, too late.

There was just three points between the sides at the foot of the SW3 table at the start of the match, with Milton having the upper hand.

They got off to a fine start with a solo try from Ciaran Johnston who brushed off a couple of tackles, kicked ahead and won a sprint to the ball.

From then on it was all Vandals. They raced to a 26-6 half-time lead and struck with a couple of converted tries after the break. That, though, was their last visit to the scoreboard.

Player/coach and man of the match for Milton, Brendan Tracey, helped his side to strike with four tries over the final 30 minutes for a well-earned bonus point – Ben Russell got two of them and singles came from George Hughes before Johnston scored his second.

Weybridge’s earlier efforts were enough to give them the game 40-27.