Petersfield ended their Hampshire Counties One title-winning season with a 50-10 victory at Portsmouth on Saturday.

Portsmouth took an early lead with an unconverted try in the left corner. From the restart Portsmouth took the ball into Petersfield’s half and a miss pass to their left wing was intercepted by Petersfield’s Greg Jansen, who received a yellow card for a deliberate knock on. Field were down to 14 players for ten minutes but held firm.

Jansen was restored to the pitch and Petersfield hit back. Alex Duffus tapped a penalty and passed to Nick Blumlein, who passed to Matt McLean for Karter Whittock to set up a ruck. McLean pounced on the ball and dived over the line to open Petersfield’s account with an unconverted try. Sam Brown then scored off a ruck 15 metres out and dotted down under the posts for Blumlein to convert. McLean crossed the line under the posts for a converted try to give Field a 19-5 lead at half-time.

Alex Duffus scores his first try (Photo: Andi L Jones Photography)
Alex Duffus scores his first try (Photo: Andi L Jones Photography) (Andi L Jones Photography)

Early in the second half Brown took Sam Dawes’ pass and charged 25 metres to score an unconverted try in the left corner. Brown completed his hat-trick soon afterwards when he powered past two defenders to score in the left corner. Blumlein executed a difficult conversion to make it 31-5.

Portsmouth were not fazed and spent the next ten minutes pinning the visitors in their own half. The hosts pulled Field’s defensive line apart for their left winger to score an unconverted try. Petersfield’s superiority in the forwards then gave a platform for Duffus to thread his way through the home defence and score a converted try close to the posts.

Sam Brown scores his second try (Photo: Andi L Jones Photography)
Sam Brown scores his second try (Photo: Andi L Jones Photography) (Andi L Jones Photography)

Portsmouth advanced their score through their excellent and mobile backs, who pulled Petersfield’s defence apart to score an unconverted try in the right corner. Petersfield’s Zak Jenkins then dotted down as he was tackled, and Blumlein added an excellent conversion into a strong crosswind. Duffus scored an excellent try from a scrum to complete the scoring.

Petersfield host Weybridge Vandals at Penns Place on Saturday in the Papa Johns Cup (3pm).

By Chris Todd