IN-FORM Fordingbridge RFC notched a sixth successive win over Romsey 49-26 to guarantee third place in Snows Hampshire One.

‘Bridge go into the season-closer at home to Chineham on Saturday with a 10-point cushion over nearest rivals Sandown and Shanklin, but are unable to catch second-placed Petersfield.

In a see-saw first half on Saturday, ’Bridge took the lead after a series of handling errors by Romsey enabled Alex Davenport to feed Tom Madgewick, who touched down.

Romsey responded immediately with a try under the posts and, with the conversion added, they took the lead 7-5. They then further stretched this lead to five points with a penalty.

Within two minutes, Mat Norton kicked a penalty which was cancelled out when Romsey replied with a second penalty of their own.

Dan Brown then weaved his way through the Romsey defence to score and level the scores at 13-13.

Romsey scored the first of three intercept tries to take the lead again.

Mat Norton shortened the lead with a long distance drop goal and Peter Scott scored the first two tries of his hat-trick for the afternoon. As the half came to a close, the visitors were in a commanding position of 30-21.

At the start of the second half, Tim Donnell, making his return to the first team, was on the end of a pass from Ross Bealey to score and, with the conversion, pushed the lead to 37-21.

Man of the match Peter Scott’s third try was the second intercept of the afternoon as he ran the length of the pitch.

Second newcomer to the team, Rufus Wallis, also scored on his debut. But, with the conversion going just wide, Fordingbridge were not able to break the 50 points barrier. The final intercept of the day went to Romsey.

Harry Hitchings, ’Bridge captain for the day in place of the injured Steve Brown, said: “It’s always a difficult game at Romsey and I’m grateful that we managed to maintain our fitness for the win.”