EDF ENERGY SENIOR VASE ROUND THREE Trojans........................26 Hammersmith & Fulham...........7

Hammersmith& Fulham suffered travel-sickness as they crashed out of the EDF Senior Vase to Trojans on Saturday.

The west London outfit endured a long early morning journey to Southampton to face their high-flying London Four South-West opponents, and then their under-strength side played for the first 40 minutes as if they were still on the team bus.

The hosts ruthlessly exposed the weaknesses in the H&F line-up, and by the time the visitors found their bearings Trojans had ran in 21 unanswered points and the game was lost.

With only pride to play for after the break, H&F finally got some momentum from their forwards, allowing no.8 Barry O'Sullivan to barge his way over the line and get his side on the scoreboard. The boot of Tom Kenward added the extras from the conversion.

The last 20 minutes were played almost exclusively in the Trojans' half but passes went astray, meaning pressure wasn't turned into points, and a further try for the hosts meant H&F finished well beaten.

LONDON NIGERIANS coach Roger Coombs this week defended his side's no show in Saturday's Middlesex Cup tie with Ruislip.

The London Three North West strugglers have regularly found it hard to field a side this season thanks to injuries and other absentees.

And with resources still low and little prospect of causing an upset against their London Two North opponents, Coombs opted to scratch.

"Our priority has got to be the league, and it was only the other week we were 12 players short," said Coombs.

"We have a few players coming back, but would only have needed to get one or two players injured and we'd have been back to square one, so I made the decision to scratch."