Eastleigh 13 Farnham 15

Eastleigh came within seconds of moving off the bottom of the table.

The Bishopstoke Road side were on their way to making it three wins on the bounce but a late penalty sealed their fate.

However the one losing bonus point did move them right onto the shoulder of Winchester, who were also beaten at home.

Eastleigh were caught out by two sucker-punch tries in the first half.

A clearing kick in their own 22 was charged down by the onrushing Farnham defence and the visitors won a foot race to the line to dive on the loose ball. 

Eastleigh came back hard and from a penalty scrum rucked close to the line for John Williams to crash over.

The home side went behind when the Farnham scrum-half acted quickest to tap-and-go from five metres out. 

The conversion gave the visitors a 12-5 half-time lead.

Eastleigh missed a great opportunity to cross the line while Farnham were down to 14 after a yellow card, but added three points from a Phil Baldwin penalty.

Soon after a great break downfield by Panos Logothetis had the visiting defence clutching at shadows and a well-placed cross field kick found Rich O’Donnell unmarked wide on the right to dive over in the corner and put Eastleigh 13-12 in front.

Eastleigh knew they had to keep Farnham at arms’ length to avoid giving the opportunity to score.

However, soft tackling in midfield gave the Surrey side the platform deep into the home half. 

The scrambling defence was forced into an error and a high tackle gave the visitors a simple shot at goal. 

The Farnham kicker held his nerve to win the game.

Winchester 20 Twickenham 40
Winchester gave as good as they got for the majority of a physical clash. 

But the Londoners’ persistent attacks paid off in the final quarter.

Winchester were just four points adrift at half-time following a Matt

Golding try which Ollie Dunger converted to add to his earlier penalty.

The loss of prop Tom Williams to a shoulder injury in the first half and hooker Josh Michell  with suspected broken ribs did not help matters.

Twickenham struck early in the second half with a converted try but Winch got back to within a point with a Charlie Preston try and Dunger’s reliable boot.

But three further tries in last 20 minutes put the game beyond Winchester.