THEY may be close neighbours, but there was nothing friendly about Oakmeadians' 17-17 draw with Swanage and Wareham at Meyrick Park in Powergen South West Division Two East.

Although Oaks staged a gutsy late fightback to ensure the points were ultimately shared, the draw was not viewed as an honourable one by all parties as four players were sin-binned and Swans full-back Chris Leak was hospitalised after an alleged deliberate knee-drop to his chest.

Indeed, with two of the Swans forwards also forced off following a sickening clash of heads, the queue at accident and emergency may only just have begun to clear.

Swans were quickly on the front foot in the early stages to rack up a handy 12-point half-time lead.

The visitors capitalised on a ninth-minute penalty as Phil Graves drove the ball into the Oaks 22-metre line to allow fly-half James Harris to jink his way over for a flying start.

Swans continued to pile forward and midway through the half an excellent move along the back division found Leak overlapping to score out wide, but suffer a crunching blow to the chest in the process which ended his involvement in the game.

Graves stepped up to slot home the conversion to leave Oaks with a mountain to climb as they reached the interval 12-0 down.

The loss of Swanage's forward duo David Burgess and Jared Brown with head injuries proved a setback for the visitors and Oaks were quick to take advantage and get themselves back in the game.

Stuart Ramsey broke from a scrum to power over the line before the prolific Francois Van Schwalkyk touched down after a searching diagonal run to pull his side within two points.

Oaks' hopes of completing the fightback were dealt a blow when Swans' scrum-half Gary Graves was rumbled over by his pack for a driving try.

But the home side stuck to their task and responded once more as Van Schalkwyk released Aaron Saunders through a gap to score under the posts.

Neil Tarditi converted the extra two points from close range and despite a frantic flurry in the closing seconds as Swans pushed forward again, the draw was sealed as Oaks stood firm.

Oaks: Payne, McKean (Tuivai), Saunders, Tarditi, Van Schwalkwyk, Harman, Walton, Siaki, Gallagher, Riley, W Croker (Bongard), J Croker, Ramsey, Van Heran, Hokianga.

Swans: Leak (Gould), Blackmore, P Graves, Steeden, Marshall, Harris, G Graves, Peters (Randle), R Elford, Williams, Burgess (Randle), Brown (Warren), Harwood, Robins, M Elford.

l Injury-hit Wimborne were unable to contain top-of the-table Reading as they crashed to a 26-5 loss.

Already missing several first teamers, Wimborne had used all three replacements inside the first 35 minutes and were forced to play the last half-hour one man short and the last five minutes with just 13 men.

They day did not start well as with just two minutes on the clock, they conceded a penalty try and found themselves well adrift at the break.

But an improved showing after the interval saw them eventually register as James Baker touched down for a consolation try.

l Peter Sammons struck 27 points, including a hat-trick of tries, for Swans as they got the better of the seconds' clash with Oaks thanks to a 37-5 victory.

Courtney Suckling and Simon Kittcatt were also scorers.

Oakmeadians thirds managed a 21-10 success over Wimborne thirds while Swans thirds went down 31-15 at Blandford.

Oakmeadians Ladies produced a fine display to ease past Petersfield 22-0 in South East Two (West). Four tries from centre Kath Foley, one converted by Shelley Barr, handed Oaks victory.