Southampton's pre-season took off with a bang as they ran in seven unanswered tries away to Alresford.

After eventful journey which saw the Fun Bus run out of fun somewhere around Winchester, Saints lined up to face Alresford in preparation for the upcoming season. From the very first scrum, the visitors put in a huge shove, drove Alresford back and stole the ball - a pattern that was to be repeated throughout the game.

It didn't take long for Saints to open the scoring, with Hodds showing great pace to beat a number of players down the left wing before finding Aaron Owen in support. Owen ran in for the first score, with Tom Howells converting.

In the first half, Saints dominated in most areas of the game with Marcus Coffin stealing a number of Alresford line outs. With the continued pressure on their scrum, it became very difficult for Alresford to build any kind of attacking platform.

Saints made the most of this pressure with Howells adding two tries of his own. The first came after a break through the middle by captain Jordan Dashwood, while Howells' second was a typical jinking run which saw him stepping a number of defenders. Marcus Coffin showed his power by crashing through two defenders one after the other, before Gus Nye added Saints' fourth try after picking up at the back of the scrum and forcing his way across the line.

Towards the end of the half Alresford did manage to threaten the Saints line. Some quick hands and a loop from the fly half saw the ball worked out to the left, but with the winger in space the final pass was too high and flew over his head into touch. On another occasion an excellent tackle from centre Tommy Ashby kept the score to zero. As the first half came to an end an Alresford penalty five metres out was repelled by some heroic defending, which saw captain Dashwood take a knock and sit the rest of the game out. Saints went in at half time with the score 0 - 24.

The second half saw Alresford continue to press for a score, with debutant Carl Shodeke preventing a try by holding his man up over the line. He later also left the pitch after popping out his shoulder. (It popped back in). Half time replacement Ian Budd flapped at a few line outs before blatantly slapping the ball out of the scrum half's hand - a move that earned him a yellow card (and would have earned him the Dick of the Day pint had he not snuck off early...)

Alresford were unable to make the extra man count and when Saints were back to full strength they finished the game off. After turning over an Alresford ruck Tom Laycock broke away with Alec Gray in support. The ball bounced free but Nick Cazeaux showed the advantage of coming from depth by reacting well to gather the loose ball. He found Jack Leadbitter who ran in to score with a frankly ridiculous swan dive. Howell converted, taking Saints' lead to 31 points.

Marcus Coffin grabbed Saints' sixth by powering his way over from close range, before Leadbitter finished off the scoring by grabbing his second try of the game.

The game was then brought to and early end after an awful injury to an Alresford player; a collision of bodies in the tackle saw him taken to hospital by Air Ambulance with a broken leg. Patrick - everyone at Southampton wishes you all the best for a speedy recovery.

Southampton come away with a 0 - 43 win and will be extremely happy with the dominance shown in the scrum. With a number of players still to come into the squad they will feel this was a great start to build upon.

Carl Shodeke earned a man of the match pint for his try-saving heroics, whilst in Buddy's absence Jack Leadbitter's swan dive earned him Dick of the Day.

Southampton Rugby Club

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