Petersfield drew 17-17 at Old Tiffinians in Regional Two South Central.

A knock-on by Petersfield in desperate defence just metres short of their tryline put the home side’s scrum on the front foot. Old Tiffinians secured possession while narrowing Petersfield’s defence and scored a converted try to the right of the posts.

The hosts scored their second try when they won lineout ball, before slick hands and quick feet spread the ball across the pitch to the inside centre who cantered through to score an unconverted try.

With 30 minutes played Petersfield won the ball at a scrum. Karter Whittock picked up and passed to Brad Caparo, who in turn passed to Charlie Muir and on to Jim Tribe, who speedily covered 35 metres and was tackled. Tribe offloaded to the approaching Whittock who drove himself over the line to score a try converted by Caparo.

The game was delicately poised at half-time, with the hosts 12-7 ahead.

Old Tiffinians opened the scoring in the second half when one of their wingers intercepted a pass and covered more than 50 metres before touching down to score an unconverted try.

Petersfield responded when Mackenzie Van Laun caught a Tiffinians relieving kick and passed inside to Matt McLean. McLean saw the home side’s defence was somewhat confused and threaded his way through their line to dance round the posts and touch down under the crossbar. With time running out the successful conversion was taken quickly to bring the score to 17-14.

Petersfield secured the restart ball and rumbled up field with Will Norton leading the charge to win a penalty 20 metres in front of the posts. The referee confirmed there was only time to complete the penalty move, so Caparo kicked to add three points to Field’s tally and two league points to the table.

By Chris Todd