Room for improvement still
07 Nov 09 New Milton & District 7 v 69 Petersfield 1st XV
Petersfield made the long journey to the new forest facing the prospect of a potential banana skin to derail their recent league success in the form of mercurial New Milton, who have matched some disappointing losses with some emphatic wins. Having a sterling win from last weekend in the National Cup under their belt, Petersfield travelled perhaps feeling a little less of underdogs than the formbook would have them, but still Coach Barnes recognised that the Penns Place XV would have to be on top of their game to make their mark at Ashley Park. Director of rugby Steve Penberthy rallied the away side with his usual vigour, but was himself quick to point out that as soon as the game kicked off, the responsibility would fall firmly at the feet of the playing squad.
Coach Barnes must wonder at times what he needs to do to make players follow up on his request for a reduced penalty count, as successive infringements saw 'Field effectively invite their hosts in for an early try, finding themselves seven points behind at a very early stage, from a quickly taken penalty, driven over by the home pack.
Skipper Ian Palmer, who once again gave a physical platform all afternoon, calmly gathered his men under the posts and demanded that panic should not set in. The response was a positive one and after several minutes camped in the opposing half, the Petersfield backs finally broke free to level the scores, Andy Barnes opening his account with two tries and conversions.
This heralded the start of Petersfield's scoring spree, with Flett getting the first of his hat trick and the ‘Field back division carving up the opposing back line thanks to some quick ball secured by their intimidating back row. Mention must also go to winger Will 'Alex' Dunglinson, who gamefully stepped in at scrum half following an injury to Petersfield’s influential scrum-half James Martin. The winger showed excellent versatility and prevented a potential hurdle from slowing the visiting assault.
New Milton may have expected some respite as the Red-n-Whites brought on Charlie Hoff, normally a centre as a wing and immediately made the mistake of kicking the ball straight to the big Kiwi as a gambit. Charlie gathered the ball and when he was finally stopped thirty metres on, the scene behind him resembled a train crash as he faultlessly applied the principles of the Māori sidestep through three successive tacklers. Barnes said afterwards there was a collective sigh of resignation from the home support as they realised their game was up.
The home team weren’t helped five minutes later when their openside flanker Bolt decided to take issue with wing forward Gareth Nicholls using his Cornish wiles. Bolt’s haymaker retaliation was right in front of the referee and that got the home player a red card, Nicholls getting a ten-minute enforced rest. But the damage was done and ‘Milliy’ was on the back foot from that point on.
Petersfield turned round on the sodden pitch 31 – 7 ahead at the break and having further developed their superiority, at fifty minutes in had the luxury of bringing on quality players in Winter for Williams (Hartwig showing his versatility moving into the front row) and Sharman coming into the back row for the industrious Crane. Sharman celebrtaed with a try of his own, to go with Palmer’s brace and with the score at 48 – 7 at ten minutes to go, Petersfield stepped up the pace to complete the demolition of third placed New Milton with three tries in the virtually three minutes play, the pick of these being the forwards alone mving the ball from deep through six pairs of hands, for Winter to gallop in unoppsed from twenty metres out. Lewis and Saunders has already dipped their bread in the scoring pot and with Barnes adding a total of seven conversions, ‘Field had finally developed their game game to the point where Coach Tony Barnes could say after that his lads were now seeming to enjoy what they were doing. Laconic words from the quiet man!
Although it would be easy to take the scoreline as the sign of a one-sided affair, New Milton continued to fight until the final whistle, and credit must go to their determination. But at the end of the day, it was the excellent Petersfield defence, which both organised itself well and scrambled effectively when broken to limit the home side to a single early try. There is an often quoted belief that the modern game 'starts up front' with the forwards, although after 70 minutes of tireless dominance, the field pack, it seemed, were determined to have the last word as well, with numerous flowing breaks and deft offloading resulting in tries at the close of play for Winter, Sharman and Palmer, each time with the ball moving through numerous pairs of hands before the score.
Petersfield cannot afford to rest on their laurels, with stern tests to come from Eastleigh next weekend and the return fixture with league leaders Alton, who continue their unbeaten run in the league, but ‘Field can carry a lot of momentum from this largely dominant and at times highly clinical performance and still believe that they can continue to improve.
