BASINGSTOKE RFC maintained their perfect start to their Hampshire Premier campaign with a 17-7 win at Gosport and Fareham II.

The visitors arrived at a blustery wet Gosport with a side including four debutants so the day was never gonna flow as it had in previous weeks.

It was a fairly even start and playing with the conditions we spent much of the first half in Gosport's territory.

Dominating the scrum in the first half a ball against the head and Dave Rees picked from the base with the winger to beat.

A strong hand off and a dive to corner we led 5-0 with Kurtis Eagle adding the extras from out wide.

At this point it looked like Stoke would build up a good lead, but good defence from the home side, poor decision making and few handling errors it stayed 7-0.

However, the visitors clicked for few passages of play the right options were taken and from a good lineout Dave Rees popped up to crash over from close range.

The second half was played into the wind and rain, the rugby was not pretty but our defence was strong they came back with a break away try to make the game a contest.

It was a battle of who would make the least mistakes and capitalise on territory.

It was even until the last few plays when Rhyan Harmon-Scott crashed over with not enough time to go for the bonus point try, the final whistle brought an end to a tiring and well fought win but not a game for the spectators.

After the game player/coach Simon Appleby said: "Sam Goddard and Dave Rees both the stand our players but special mentions should go to Matt Mairs on his debut who was strong in defence on an extremely hard day for the backs and one of our coaches Chris Williams who after agreeing to bench for us managed to put a massive shift of full 80 minutes in."

Stoke now have a week off and return to action on October 20 with a massive top of the table clash with early leaders Sandown and Shanklin.