FAREHAM 38pts

PETERSFIELD 14pts

Petersfield suffered their second Hampshire 1 defeat of the season on Saturday and it is perhaps unsurprising that it should have been at an away match.

The problems of last year appear to be persisting and it was yet another arrangement of Petersfield’s senior players that travelled to Fareham Heathens. The eight players missing from the team that defeated Ellingham & Ringwood last week required coach Patience to field his fourth different line-up in as many games.

The visitors battled hard to stay in contention despite having the odds stacked against them and with 50 minutes gone were still within five points of their more cohesive and well-drilled opponents. At this point an interception, well supported, led to Fareham’s fourth – bonus point – try. This was a score that the visitors were never going to recover from and their hosts ran in two further tries in the last quarter to seal an emphatic victory.

The rate of attrition for Petersfield’s players was high and around 15 minutes was added to the match for injury time. One of the longest stoppages was for the inspirational Gareth Crane, who missed the bulk of last season with injury. Fortunately, Crane was able to see out the game, as was Harley Orr who had earlier been sidelined with a cut face but returned to the fray sporting a well-wrapped bandage.

Prior to his injury, Orr had showed the qualities that make him such a tricky player to play against. Surprisingly nimble and hard to knock down, Orr had a couple of penetrating runs that had the Fareham defence scrambling for cover. Likewise, centre Rushmer was obviously up for the match and relishing the crash ball.

It was Rushmer who secured Petersfield’s first try at the end of the first half. Having been turned over at a scrum on Fareham’s five-metre line, Petersfield worked hard to rescue the ball from the subsequent breakdown allowing Rushmer to barrel over from short distance. Wilks’ trusty boot added the extras to bring the visitors to within five points at the end of the half.

From the kick-off Fareham made their way up the pitch to score, only for Petersfield to repeat the feat with one of their own from the next restart – the nippy Belcher finishing the team’s efforts by going over from close in.

And it was a mere five minutes after this that Fareham intercepted a Petersfield pass and scored the try that signalled the beginning of the end.