Following last weeks poor showing away to Thanet, the team and supporters were looking for an improvement this week. It took till the final quarter of this game for Basingstoke to finally subdue a spirited Portsmouth side. The signs of the rebirth stated to show in the first 15 minutes as Basingstoke pressed the visitors line and Paul Trendell kicked them into a 6-0 lead. However on 20 minutes the old missed tackled syndrome reappeared and Portsmouth scored a converted try to take the lead 6-7. However that was the only occasion they would hold it as on 29 minutes a penalty to Paul Trendell put Basingstoke 9-7 up, this being the score at half time.

Within 5 minutes of the restart Basingstoke extended the lead through a well worked try to Karl Buttle, converted by Paul Trendell, sloppy defence then allowed Portsmouth to get into the Stoke half and a maul close out allowed their forwards to post a try and bring the score to 16-12. This seemed to galvanise Basingstoke and a cracking break from Paul Trendell saw him score on 53 minutes a try which he duly converted. Further scores came on 60 minutes with Simon Appleby going over for Paul to convert, this was followed by a further penalty to Paul, followed by another Appleby try which went unconverted. The scoring was then completed by a squad try converted by Darren Lillywhite with Paul Trendell adding the conversions points and a final score to of:

Basingstoke 45 Portsmouth 12

Team: Neil Young (C), Jamie Folan (77 mins Phil Perkins), Glenike Hawea, Ross Stirling, JOhn O’Leary (71 mins Chris Williams), Simon Appleby, Jim Dixon, Nick Cooper, Darren Lillywhite, Paul Trendell, Karl Buttle, Tony Russell, Simon Buckland, Dave Lambert, Mike Goodall. Sub not used Tim Richards.