Ellingham & Ringwood travelled to Eastleigh for their league game to try and maintain their push for promotion. On a pitch bathed in early spring sunshine the game kicked off with both side playing competitive rugby in the opening exchanges with neither team backing down in defence. That was until the 19th minute when second row Andrew Lorton muscled his way over the Eastleigh try line following good work form his fellow forwards. Chris Frost playing on the wing stepped up to add the additional two points, but Ellingham did not hold to their lead for long after an interception and Eastleigh flanker Nicholas Blake cut a good line with a powerful run to score the home sides first try, fly half Arron Barnes converted his kick to level the scores.

Then on the 27th minute Chris Frost slotted over a penalty following a block on centre Connor Hamerston by an Eastleigh player denying Connor the opportunity to collect his chip kick ahead over the Eastleigh defence. The Ellingham forwards were starting to make their mark with hooker Pat Fraser powering his way over to give the away team their second try of the game in the 34th minute and Frost was able to add the two points to extend their lead. Three minutes later winger Hugo Leigh-Watts came off his wing evading three tackles one of which nearly decapitated him, and the Eastleigh player was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes after Hugo had scored his try. Again, Frost was able to convert his kick. Eastleigh fought back and put the Ellingham defence under extreme pressure with their rolling mauls, which eventually ended up with firstly Andrew Lorton being shown a yellow card and then hooker Pat Fraser a few minutes later, the referee lost his patience with Ellingham and awarded the home team a penalty try in the 45th minute. Making the half time score Eastleigh 14 - Ellingham & Ringwood 24.

Eastleigh started the second half strongly with their prop Jack Devereux getting their third try of the game in the 44th minute with Barnes again able to add the extra two points. In the 58th minute with Ellingham restored to a full 15, flanker Chris Hancock got Ellingham's fourth try of the game, which extended the away team's lead. This was further extended in the 60th minute with winger Hugo (The Bosh) Leigh-Watts with a blistering run down the left flank evading the efforts of the home teams defence leaving them standing almost like statues to score a good try and Frost was able to add the two points. Nine minutes later following the away team applying a lot of pressure to Eastleigh in their twenty-two, captain and scrum half Sammy Veneroso took a quick tap penalty to score a try and again Frost was able to convert to add two more points to Ellingham's score. Four minutes later in the 75th minute Eastleigh got their fourth try of the game when winger Euan Styles going over the whitewash and Barnes was able to add the two points with his conversion. In the dying moments of the game, second row (man of the match – pictured) George Randall, who had moved to play at number 8 when coach Alan Steel made some changes to the team in the second half, powered over to score a try following sustained pressure and with the last kick of the game Frost was successful to make the final score Eastleigh 28 - Ellingham & Ringwood 50.

Celebrating in the bar afterwards following a hard-fought victory the Ellingham players learnt that rivals Gosport & Fareham lost to Bognor meaning that Ellingham moved up to second position in the league, keeping their hopes alive. Three games remain with Bognor visiting Ellingham next week before the showdown when Ellingham travel to Gosport & Fareham.

The Swede