Petersfield 25 Teddington 13: SATURDAY saw the dawn of new era for the players of Petersfield’s first team.

Following a successful pre-season, it was time for a true test against a well-established London South West 3 team, Teddington.

The game started perfectly for Field with centre Tom Franks scoring with less than a minute on the clock. Aggressive defence from the pack led to an error by the visitors which was punished by Franks’ break down the right wing.

Field lost back rower Toby Sydenham just before half time with a shoulder injury, but his team mates rallied well to lessen the impact of his departure on the match.

The work rate from all the forwards allowed Field the majority of possession and territory in the first half, leading to two more tries, one each from wingers Eddie Matthews and Josh Haslett.

Nick Blumlein added two conversions and a penalty to end the half at 22-3.

With Momber sin-binned for a late tackle just before the half ended, Field were required to step up and show their desire in defence and the 14 players did just that, preventing Teddington from scoring in the minutes before and after half time.

In the second half the visitors capitalised on penalty lineouts inside Field’s 22, driving over to score tries.

Other opportunities involving open play were either snuffed out by Field’s defence or went begging through inaccurate passing and poor handling in the back line.

Blumlein then added a further penalty to his tally to end the game at 25-13.

Head coach James Alder declared himself very pleased with the players’ effort, togetherness and team spirit but recognised the need to manage some game situations better.

Alder said: “I’m delighted with the grit, strength and competition for places that is showing at training and on the pitch.

“Our forwards completely dominated Teddington throughout the game and this is massively positive going forward.

“The backs have power, pace and dynamism and will punish teams in attack and defence.

“Before the game, we lost three forwards due to injury and illness and will hopefully have them back in the weeks to come.

“Despite this, the team quickly adapted to the disruption and, to their credit, got a well-deserved victory.

“The bonus point try would have been a great reward for the team, but a heavy penalty count and being down to 14 stopped our momentum.”