Eastleigh kicked off their new campaign with a bonus point home win over Purley John Fisher.

But the Bishopstoke Road outfit had to work hard to earn their 28-15 London 3 South-West victory – holding up their opponents on two occasions as they crossed the line twice in the first 20 minutes.

In fact Purley took the lead with a penalty before Eastleigh registered their first points of the season.

From a line-out centre Chris Cove made a break and found winger Ash Holland, who raced across the whitewash in the corner.

A Jon Lynch penalty was followed with a drop goal from Phil Baldwin to put Eastleigh 11-3 up at the break.

The hosts started the second half well and on 50 minutes captain Paul Fudio broke down the blindside, the forwards sucked in the Purley defence and a cross-field kick by Baldwin put full back Jack Curtis in the corner.

John Williams increased Eastleigh’s advantage when he went over while his side were down to 14 players – flanker Ben White was sin binned for ten minutes, and hooker Stu Mason paid the same price minutes later for slowing the ball down at the breakdown.

However, another try, and bonus point, came when Eastleigh were a player short, centre Matt Blackman touching down and Lynch adding the extras.

Purley did manage to make numbers count with a couple of tries in the final five minutes but by then Eastleigh were home and dry.

New Milton had to fight to the whistle to claim the spoils 32-28 against London Exiles.

Milton were behind at the break – a couple of pushover tries from line-outs by Luke Day and James Poole in answer to 14 points from the visitors.

Man of the match Ryan Morrell turned on the style in the second half, winning a race to the ball from his grub kick to touch down and convert.

Morrell went on to convert a penalty before following up another kick to touch down.

Full back Zac Smith made a good break from his 22 and passed to Jacob Dear who ran in to score and again Morrell added the extras.

Exiles refused to give up and ran in a couple of converted tries in the last ten minutes.

Milton face neighbours Ellingham & Ringwood, who also got off to a flying start at the weekend, next Saturday.

The Es defeated Sandown & Shanklin 32-18 at the Raymond Brown Memorial Ground on the edge of the New Forest. Ellingham scored tries through Garrett Avis, Charlie Cockram, Dave Jones, Charlie Levey and Joe Tarrant. Ali Bennett kicked a penalty and two conversions.

Phil Osman, Ellingham’s influential player coach, broke his ankle midway through the second half and is likely to be out for some while.

SW3 newcomers Andover and Trojans both lost out on day one.

Promoted Andover managed to return from their trip Old Mid-Whitgiftian with a bonus point after losing 25-19.

Trojans, relegated from SW2, were beaten 26-13 at home by promoted Old Tonbridgians.