THERE was no early Christmas present for Basingstoke RFC as they suffered another home defeat, this time at the hands of visiting Old Reigatians in London Two South West.

The visitors won the game 57-0 to record their first away win of the season and this leaves Stoke hoping for better luck in 2016.

Stoke welcomed back their university players Will Joyce and George Hemmings and also had David Greenaway back from an eye injury.

He produced a great performance and picked up Stoke's man of the match.

For the majority of the game the home defence was strong, but on too many occasions they were exposed after good phase play by Reigatians.

Annoyingly despite what the scoreboard showed, it was not a fair reflection on the game.

Stoke a few opportunities to score some points, but their finishing let us down.

However, a huge positive to take away from this was the fact they were getting themselves into these positions.

They just need to work on being more clinical in the right parts of the pitch.

Basingstoke RFC head coach Gareth Hatherley-Hurford said: "As a coach the hardest thing is seeing your players go through hell knowing they are giving everything they can but all you want for them is a different result.

It has been a tough start to the season for Stoke, but Hatherley-Hurford remains upbeat and said: "The most rewarding thing is the experience and the fact you do it together no matter what.

United safe in the knowledge that one day it will have been all worth it because that's rugby it's the ups and the downs and its everything in between and the richest of souls in our game are the ones that can truly say they have been through it all."

Stoke's next game is away at KCS Old Boys on Saturday January 9 and they lost in the reverse fixture at Down Grange 34-12.