Local Farmers watch good home victory
13 Feb 10 Petersfield 1st XV 64 v 14 New Milton
Petersfield continued its hot pursuit of a play-off place for the London leagues with a competent thrashing of a disorganised New Milton XV at Penns Place on Saturday, but it does leave itself open to that sucker punch which is something it is going to have to tighten up on if serious in the desire to gain promotion, and more importantly, retain it.
Petersfield has still got the reputation of slow starters and it was New Milton, disrupted by their own internal wrangling that tore into ‘Field on Saturday and in front of a big crowd of nearly two hundred, pinned the East Hampshire side into its own half for ten minutes. The visitors battered away down the middle of the park with grim intent and only the solidity of the ‘Field defence kept the line intact. One must suppose this is a plus, for early in the season, perhaps this would have conceded a try, but the centre and back row combined to snuff out any threat of that, although it was ‘heart-in-mouth time’ for ‘Field’s loyal, passionate supporters.
And perhaps Petersfield is also learning to play to the referee. The weekend’s official, Peter Westley is a stickler for the offence handling on the ground. He pinged ‘Field three times in as many minutes, as New Milton got closer and closer to the home line, culminating in a thirty metre shot at goal, which fortunately missed. Whatever quietly-spoken coach Barnes, calmly holding tufts of hair he had torn out, said under the posts plainly worked, because from the restart Petersfield took the ball fifty metres upfield, stayed on its feet at all the rucks and got its own chance when Mr. Westley caught a desperate New Milton hand trying to snaffle the ball. Up stepped the mercurial Andy Barnes, who this week had bought his kicking boots, and slotted a thirty five metre penalty, and Petersfield, realising that they should stop faffing about, took control for most of there the rest of the game.
Petersfield has also had an easy formula to which the Penns Place full-size pitches lend themselves. Fast ball from the pack and hit the wingers, so bang on cue this is what it did, to unconfined relief of its large support. Incidentally, large in more ways than one, for Petersfield had held a “Farmers’ Lunch” before the fixture and as these sons of the soil rose from their four course repast and filled the balcony, the advice they were able to pass to the park became more voluble and trenchant. Petersfield was plainly listening, for they swung the ball from one wing to the other for the rest of the afternoon to great effect.
Firstly, the ball flew out in third phase to left wing Will Dunglinson who raced tippy-toe, down the line, dancing round three defenders to open the try account. Recovering the ball, from the ‘Millie’ restart, ‘Field attacked the opposite wing, for short-side flanker Gareth Crane set out to earn the man-of-the-match award with a fine, grafting try. Scarcely has New Milton recovered its breath than Petersfield were off again, this time with fly-half James Flett (watched by mother Chris Ball), perhaps a little avaricious with the ball, dummying to three men outside, dancing through the closing tackle line on the left and running cheekily under the posts, to make the conversion a cinch for Barnes. Still, as Jonathan Davies says, fly halves should ‘boss’ the game and that is quite what Flett sets out to do.
And then as the half approached, Petersfield again attacked on the right. Hooker Ball, who is becoming an aggressive little man, in the same mould as TV pundit Brian Moore, and absolutely a real asset in the ‘Field front row, took one against the head. Butcher flung the ball out wide, Hoff crashed through the centre and the ball hit George Saunders at pace for the wee man to crash over in the corner. Barnes by this time had added three conversions and Petersfield went into the second half 29 – 0 up.
Petersfield then turned round with the slope in its favour and carried on as before. Firstly, it was centre Barnes who barrelled over to start the score turning. ‘Field then momentarily took a nap. New Milton, gutsy as ever fought back upfield and with Petersfield almost marking time on their own twenty-two, allowed centre Gould to goose-step across the defence line to score a converted try. Wake-up time under the posts from forwards coach White and Petersfield powered back, with Crane again coming up in support of a seventy metre drive on a beautiful running line to score his second.
New Milton pushed ‘Field back, and to their credit, desperately tried throwing the ball about. Unhappily for the visitors Saunders read this attack beautifully and, intercepting on the home twenty-two, raced the eighty metres downfield, roared on by the home crowd for the cheekiest of tries.
Petersfield relaxed again and let New Milton back into its half for Bolt to plunge over. Coach Barnes then brought off the hard-working Dunglinson and replaced him on the wing with teenager Harry Green. Green, a pupil at Worthing College, has been a model for younger players, eschewing Junior XVs to seek the harder contact of senior fixtures. To the delight of the big crowd, with his first touch of the ball in 1st XV colours at Penns, he skinned both opposition winger and centre, outside and in, to score under the posts. One might have thought his Granpappy, former club captain Geoff Higson, who lives in Spain, might have heard the cheer?
Richard Deakin came on for Nicholls and played well and Matt Hartwig got stuck in when he replaced Winter. Then the try of the afternoon, for with the game neatly in hand, Petersfield started moving the ball about with – what shall we say – controlled abandon? Racing down the right wing from his own ten-metre line, Green again beat his man and passed inside for the ball to pass through five more pairs of hands before Barnes crossed to score. The stocky centre had added all five conversions in the second half and hard-fighting New Milton had succumbed to their heaviest away defeat this season.
Petersfield will be pleased with the way it finished off the game. It could have faltered in the second half as the players tired, but they did not lose control and finished on a high. The elder Barnes was measured as usual in his praise for his squad. “It was hard on New Milton who contributed to an entertaining game,” he said “and didn't deserve to lose by 50 points. But it was, I thought, a strange performance by Petersfield, almost stagnant in some phases, but with some brilliant attacking Rugby at other times. We have to give a special mention of Harry Green, who scored with his first touch in 1st XV rugby, a great example for the Club’s young players.”
So Petersfield goes to the season’s defining game at Eastleigh next week. “There's no question that ’Field at its best will be good enough,” says Barnes “but we need to be capable of sustaining eighty minutes at our best and we must do this against an competent Eastleigh side, just waiting for us to slip.”
