Petersfield 10 Old Emanuel 33: PETERSFIELD’S home game against Old Emanuel was played in artic conditions with frequent snow flurries and a biting wind.

The conditions affected the play for both sides as cold hands and chilled muscles made handling difficult and acceleration ponderous.

A makeshift Petersfield side got off the mark after five minutes with a Josh Haslett penalty.

The home side fumbled the restart, allowing Old Emanuel to break through to score a converted try.

Another error halfway through the first quarter was again punished by the visitors, who scored an unconverted try in the corner.

On 33 minutes Field stole the ball from lose play by Old Emanuel and from just inside the visitors’ half Rory Munro and then Seb Tuff made 40 metres before offloading to the supporting Haslett to score under the posts, making his subsequent conversion a formality.

A Field player was then yellow carded, and this was followed rapidly by a penalty lineout which the visitors caught and drove over for their third try. With the conversion added and no further score, the visitors led 19-10 at the break.

Old Emanuel increased their lead on 52 minutes with another converted try.

The sin-binning of the visitors’ scrum half gave Field a lift which was short-lived as one of the Field players was sent to the sin bin a few minutes later.

A fluffed clearance kick was pounced upon by the visitors for a converted try.