Petersfield won 48-10 at Ellingham & Ringwood in Regional Two South Central on Saturday.

Petersfield kicked off deep into Ellingham & Ringwood’s half and chased down their ball carrier, tackling him to the ground. With committed rucking the visitors gained possession and reverted to their close-range tactic of pick and drive.

After four drives were deemed held up a fifth had Dan Sargent crash over, only for a defender’s hand to be under the ball.

A tapped restart by Ellingham & Ringwood was knocked on and from a scrum that morphed into a driving maul a penalty and yellow card were awarded to Ellingham & Ringwood for repeated infringements.

From a scrum 15 metres from Ellingham & Ringwood’s line Liam Perkins picked up and sprinted round the blind side to touch down for an unconverted try after nine minutes to put the visitors 5-0 up.

The hosts chased their restart and retained the ball passing across Petersfield’s defence and for a couple of minutes battered at Field’s defence on their 22. Petersfield were eventually caught offside and Ellingham & Ringwood elected to kick a penalty in front of the posts to open their score with three points.

Petersfield responded with their second unconverted try when Alex Robinson changed in from 30 metres out to make it 10-3.

The visitors then scored their third try when fly half Matt Mclean received a pass 30 metres out and went on a jinking run to thread his way to the tryline under the posts. Joe Knowles added the conversion to make it 17-3.

The restart was cleanly taken by Tom Blewitt, who passed to Greg Jansen. Jansen passed to Charlie Muir, who chose to move inside, and the ball passed through four players to find Robinson on the left who completed the move by crashing over in the corner to score an unconverted try and make it 22-3.

From a scrum McLean got Field’s back line moving with Seb Tuff arching round him and a final pass was popped up behind for Muir to gallop over the try line. Knowles added the conversion to make it 29-3.

Field then scored their sixth try when Jack Janaway saw a route to the tryline under the posts and slid in to score the try. Knowles added the conversion to give the visitors a commanding 36-3 lead at half-time.

The visitors continued to be on the front foot in the second half. Field’s pack brought the ball to the right of the posts and were repelled several times by Ellingham & Ringwood’s gritty defence until Perkins grounded the ball in goal. Knowles completed a difficult conversion.

A pinpoint penalty kick by Ellingham and Ringwood saw the ball land in field and cross the touch by the five-metre line. The home side’s clean lineout take was successfully mauled over the line for a converted try.

Petersfield completed the scoring for the day when Karter Whittock touched down for a try to make it 48-10.

With the rain getting heavier the referee called full-time with ten minutes left on the clock as the conditions continued to deteriorate.

Petersfield picked up the try bonus point as well as the win to consolidate sixth place in the Regional Two South Central table.

Petersfield will host ninth-placed Twickenham at Penns Place on Saturday.

By Chris Todd