Petersfield 17 Millbrook 22: WITH their respective records coming into this fixture and the ongoing team selection problems for Field, it looked as though damage limitation would be the target for the home side.

As events transpired, however, Field can feel rightly disappointed that they didn’t come away with the win and the cheer from the visitors at full time betrayed their relief at having avoided an unexpected banana skin at the home of one of the league’s strugglers.

Millbrook kicked off towards the Rother with the stiff, gusting wind at their backs and immediately put Field’s defence to work. As Millbrook pushed for a seemingly inevitable try, Field’s bright, buzzing scrum half, Adams, intercepted a pass and, drawing his man, released Haslett down the left wing. The flying winger needed no urging to outpace the desperately scrambling defence and raced around to score near the posts. Jameson tamed the elements to add the extras.

The score, very much against the run of play, stirred the visitors to even greater effort and they forced a penalty from the restart that they used to cut the deficit.

Territory and possession continued in Millbrook’s favour but, once again, it was Field who crossed the whitewash for the second try of the game. With scrum dominance restored, following a ragged performance against Bognor, Field’s pack secured ball in their opponent’s 22 by driving them off their own scrum. During the phases that followed, Millbrook were pressured in to giving a penalty. Although eminently kickable on a good day the wayward conditions led Field to opt for a scrum of their own. The faith in the pack was handsomely repaid as the solid possession allowed the backs to launch an attack that was finished off by pacey right-winger Cartwright. Jameson’s missed conversion proved that the team had been right to spurn the previous kick at goal.

Millbrook went back on the hunt once more and, five minutes into the second quarter, finally breached the stalwart Red defence for their first try; Field unable to clear their lines effectively in the face of a driving wind. The conversion brought the score back within two points.

This was the final score of the half, despite the efforts of Millbrook’s burly backline to bully their way through the slighter figures of their opposite numbers; Atkinson and Wakefield in the centre hitting everything that moved to snuff out attacks and the pack, more mobile than in previous outings, worked well at the ensuing breakdown.

By the end of the half, though, Field had begun to address the imbalance in territory and possession and, with a few minutes to the whistle, had forced another penalty in a normally kickable position. Once again though, the kick came to nothing.

The break was slightly longer than usual as, at the request of the visitors, Field changed their red shirts for an alternate white kit. Finally, the referee was able to kick off what would turn out to be a very long second period.

In a reverse of the first half Field started very brightly but a lack of crispness in execution allowed the visitors to regroup and deny a further try. The balance had certainly swung more firmly in Field’s favour and they were enjoying a lot more time in attack than they had in the first half.

During the third quarter, Millbrook joined their hosts in missing a penalty but no further scoring chances arose until the start of the fourth when the always lively Hooper benefitted from a strong drive by his pack-mates. Field’s lead was not extended by the conversion.

The teams continued to match each other until halfway through the final quarter when Millbrook – having been denied any success out wide – opted to stick the ball up the jumper and copied Hooper’s try with a strong drive. The conversion brought the teams level.

With barely three minutes to go, rusty execution by Field allowed Millbrook to leapfrog quickly from their own 22. Securing possession from a penalty lineout near the Field 22, they essayed a 12-man drive that eventually crossed the line to win the match for the visitors.

The result keeps Field in eighth place in the table, with the two bonus points the side has won so far this year keeping them above their nearest competition, Locks Heath Pumas.