A RAMPANT Ellingham and Ringwood inflicted more misery on lowly Romsey with a 39-7 victory in Snows Hampshire One.

Wing three quarter Josh Butcher opened the scoring with a penalty after some early pressure from the home side. Ellingham then scored tries through number 8 Stuart Pearce, prop forward Ollie Wentworth and flank forward Jack White. Butcher added two conversions, but Romsey replied with a converted try to make it 22-7 at the break.

Ellingham played some attractive rugby in the second half and were rewarded with a further three tries from centres Chris Gillespie and Callum Butler and man of the match White got a second. Butcher kicked one conversion to make the final score 39-7.

The victory moves Ellingham up to fifth.

Elsewhere, the women boosted their title challenge in National Challenge Division 2 with a 25-10 demolition over Havant on Sunday.

Lock forward Lily Taylor crashed over to open the scoring. Havant came back strongly, but there was no further scoring in the first half and Ellingham took a five point lead into the break.

Havant started the second half well and their centre Samantha White scored a try in the corner to level the score. Ellingham came back quickly and, after a series of rucks close to the Havant try line, prop forward Ruth Miles scored. Scrum half Paige Darvill-White added the conversion to make it 12-5. Ellingham’s flank forward Karen Castle was then given a yellow card and Havant exploited the extra player. Their fly half Hannah Roberts finished a good backs move to score out wide and close the gap to 12-10. Shortly after this the Havant centre Jess Codrington was sent off for a dangerous high tackle and Darvill-White kicked the resulting penalty to extend Ellingham’s lead to 15-10. It was then Ellingham that exploited the extra player and both Darvill-White and full back Amy Shipley scored tries to secure a 25-10 victory and maintain their 100 per cent record in the league.

Es are second but have a game in hand on leaders Portsmouth Valkyries Ladies.