Petersfield slipped to a 23-15 defeat at Newbury in South Central Two on Saturday.

Field kicked off with Storm Darragh at their backs and were quickly in Newbury’s half, where they spent much of the first five minutes.

Awarded a penalty on the 22, fly half Nick Blumlein skilfully slotted the ball through the posts.

Newbury then powered through down the five-metre channel to score an unconverted try in the left-hand corner after a series of scrums and penalty lineouts in Petersfield’s half.

Petersfield won a penalty at the end of the first quarter and, having already shown some scrummaging superiority, chose to scrum.

The visitors won the ball and passed it across the face of Newbury’s defence.

In a series of rucks Field failed to advance until prop Dan Sargent clutched the ball and went past three defenders to dive over the line, but he was adjudged to be held up.

Several inconclusive mauls resulted in a Newbury scrum and they bravely kicked the ball back into the centre of Petersfield’s half where full-back Will Mathews caught and kicked a return with interest.

Newbury took the ball back to Petersfield with short passes and a jinking run but lost possession.

Petersfield knocked on ten metres out from their try line and from the scrum Newbury burrowed over for an unconverted try.

With seven minutes of the half to play Newbury got the better of Petersfield in the scrum and shunted the visitors back before releasing the ball.

Through skilful short-range passes and some penetrating angled runs worked into the wind Newbury scored a converted try to the right of the posts.

Petersfield held out to the end of the half, holding the score at 17-3 in the later stages of the half.

If the limited number of Petersfield travelling supporters were optimistic of a reversal of fortunes in the second half, they may not have considered the deteriorating weather conditions into which Petersfield would now be playing.

As it transpired Petersfield adjusted their tactics and their team by moving Harley Orr to hooker and bringing on Ryan Wilkie at loosehead and Liam Perkins at number eight.

This resulted in tighter play by the forwards and less open play in the backs.

A series of controlled rucks close to the tryline sucked in the Newbury defence for Alex Duffus to pass to his right where Blumlein shot a pass to the left wing where Joe Knowles was on hand to dot down for an unconverted try.

Newbury were then awarded a penalty in front of the posts outside Petersfield’s 22 which their excellent left-footed kicker calmly converted.

With 15 minutes to play Petersfield’s tighter attack found Perkins picking up from the base of a scrappy ruck to step through two tackles and cross the whitewash on an angled run.

Petersfield’s Miles Sampson was yellow carded with eight minutes of normal time left, and Newbury successfully kicked a penalty to seal their win.

By Chris Todd