Colts fight back to remain unbeaten in the League
07 Mar 10 Guildford Colts 20 v 27 Petersfield Colts (League)
Petersfield welcomed back Joe Atkinson & “Alf” Garnett from Hampshire U20 for this top of the table clash at Guildford, hoping to put in a better performance than when the sides met in the National Colts Cup in January. With Petersfield unbeaten in the league, and Guildford having lost just once, the outcome of this game was likely to have a significant bearing on this season’s Hampshire Colts League title.
The sides looked evenly matched in the first quarter, with both sides running the ball and playing fast open rugby. Jonny Pryce at full back in particular was enjoying himself making telling incursions into the line, and returning Guildford’s kicks with interest. However both defences held tight until Guildford started to use their favourite tactic of catch and drive, and opened the scoring from a line-out on ‘Fields 22, followed by a rolling maul up to the 5 metre line, then the scrum half breaking down the narrow side to dive over.
Undaunted ‘Field came back, and with backs and forwards combining well played most of the remaining half in Guildford’s half. A searing break by scrum half Alfie Jameson and an off load to fly half Miles Rushworth who dived over close to the posts was converted by centre “Alf” Garnett to give ‘Field a deserved 5-7 lead and this was further extended when Garnett converted a penalty a few minutes later. Guildford replied with a penalty of their own at the end of the half, and the teams turned round with the visitors holding a narrow 10-8 lead.
Guildford then dominated the first 20 minutes of the second half when ‘Field didn’t help themselves with handling errors and by giving away numerous penalties. Guildford continued to pound away with their rolling maul, and although ‘Field managed to stop the maul driving over, Guildford took the lead when their centre sliced through a gap in ‘fields defence to score a converted try under the posts. Then following another catch and drive which was held up over the line, the home side extended their lead when their flanker crashed over from the resulting 5m scrum.
Now with 15 minutes to go ‘Field dug deep taking the lead from Aaron Davies who was having a tremendous game at Number 8. On virtually every carry he broke the gain line, sometimes making 20 metres, and supported by Atkinson, hooker Cameron Schmidt, ‘Field made their way up to Guildford’s line. Awarded a scrum 10 metres from Guidlford’s line, Davies picked up and despite being held, he powered his way over to score under the posts. With Garnett converting, ‘Field had clawed back to within 3 points. More good play from locks Michael Whelan and Larry Anderson, and a break by Garnett nearly broke through Guildford’s defence, but Guildford were pinged for going over the top trying to regain possession, and Garnett converted to even the scores to 20 all with less than 5 minutes to go.
In the last 5 minutes Guildford never laid their hands on the ball. Guildford’s kick-off was caught athletically by Anderson inside his 22. He jinked past one defender, and made 20 metres before off-loading to prop Tom Belcher. Belcher crashed through one attempted tackle and gave the ball to Atkinson who broke through into Guildford’s half. A long pass from Atkinson was flipped on by centre Robert Alderman to Pryce steaming up on the left. Pryce fixed the last defender and gave a perfectly timed pass to wing Ollie Stoodley who sprinted through to dive over in the left hand corner. A superb conversion by Garnett gave ‘Field a 7 point cushion with less than 2 minutes left.
Knowing they just had to keep possession to close out the match, the visitors could have just set up mini-ruck after mini-ruck as seems to be the fashion in rugby’s top flight, but this is the Colts, rugby and once the kick off was caught again by Anderson, there was no thought of playing conservatively,. Anderson again made ground, and off-loaded to Belcher. This time Belcher was caught before he could release the ball, but ‘field secured quick ball from the ruck. More off-loading with forwards and backs combining, gave Stoodley another run down the left flank. This time the cover was there, so he passed inside to Atkinson, who cut left before giving the ball back to Stoodley on the switch, and he was unfortunate that a Guildford defender managed to get under the ball as he tried to ground the ball over the line. The referee immediately blew no-side, and ‘Field can now look forward to their return match against Guildford at Penns Place on 28th March knowing that victory would virtually guarantee the league title.
Jameson’s break for Rushworth’s try
