Petersfield 5 Warlingham 11: PETERSFIELD slipped to defeat against Warlingham.
Field started brightly enough, even with centre Seb Tuff being sin-binned after two minutes for what was deemed a dangerous tackle.
Field scored off the back of a turnover scrum while still a man down, the pack driving Warlingham off their own put in at the scrum to secure the ball which was fed quickly through the hands to left-wing Eddie Matthews to dot down in the corner. Blumlein’s conversion was on target but lacked the legs to reach the posts.
Warlingham cut the deficit with a penalty in the second quarter before following it up minutes later with a try. Warlingham turned Field over while defending deep in their own 22 and with a couple of passes set their left wing off on a 95-metre sprint around Field’s defence to score down the other end. The kick hit the post and stayed out.
The second half was a patchy, stop-start affair that saw missed penalties from Warlingham and Blumlein for Field. Warlingham converted one more penalty to stretch their fragile lead.
In overtime at the end of the match, Field mounted a charge – courtesy of a number of penalties – from their own half to five metres from the Warlingham line.
After knocking on the door through a number of phases, Field opted for a penalty scrum which collapsed twice before the red pack could get it moving. On the second occasion, the ball was spun out to the backs but the defence forced a knock-on and the game ended.
Head coach James Alder summed up Saturday’s match against Warlingham as a bad day at the office.
Alder said: “Warlingham did the simple things right, but all their points where due to our mistakes.
“Both teams had a lot of handling mistakes but, to their credit, it was mainly due to trying to play summer rugby in poor conditions.
“We as a group will need to learn quickly from matches like Saturday if we are to continue to develop and maintain our league status.”
Despite the result, Field remain seventh in the league courtesy of the losing bonus point, and are good value for their position.
This year has seen a stiff learning curve for the side in their first season in the higher league but their overall performance and attitude should benefit them as they see out the second half of the season in 2018.