Petersfield 40 Basingstoke 0: PETERSFIELD returned to winning ways with a convincing win against bottom side Basingstoke on Saturday.

Field dominated the opening period. After four minutes Nick Blumlein finished a promising move with a crossfield chip to Eddie Matthews. Matthews passed back inside to Jay Bremner, who finished the last few yards to score. Blumlein added the extras.

The referee yellow-carded Field’s Jamie Williams after 12 minutes, and the visitors’ fullback after 30 minutes.

Field made the most of their opponents’ short numbers with two tries before the break, one of which was converted. The tries, finished by Tom Franks and Matthews, came either side of a missed penalty attempt by the visitors. Blumlein’s missed conversion of the Matthews try ended the half at 19-0.

Field scored their next try two minutes into the second half. Once again Blumlein chipped crossfield, this time to Josh Haslett who gathered under pressure near the line before barrelling over. Blumlein added the conversion.

At the start of the final quarter Bremner towered above his opposite number before feeding Matthews for his second try of the game. Blumlein added the extras.

Four minutes later Blumlein hit a penalty kick from halfway to touch in the defensive 22. The defender parried the ball back on to the pitch and slipped, and Matthews picked the ball up and completed his hat-trick.

Both sides received two yellow cards in the final 15 minutes. Alex Patience and Harley Orr were the Field players sent to the sin bin.

Head coach James Alder pointed to the return of regular players as the reason for his side’s more structured performance and applauded both teams for trying to play rugby, despite the conditions, which almost stopped an open and positive game.

Alder said: “This was yet another solid performance by the forwards in the set piece and carrying the ball forward, helped by solid finishing by the back line. We try to play fast, open and positive rugby and that was evidenced by our six tries. However, we are also developing our skill set to play a tight, forward-dominated game.

“It is obvious that we need to adapt against each team in this league and the fact no team has dominated us is a credit to the players.

“Another positive is the way in which the players are pushing each other to improve.

“I think we are maturing as a team, a belief supported by our results to date.”