Fareham Heathens 38 Petersfield 14: PETERSFIELD’S first team suffered their second defeat of the season on Saturday and it is perhaps unsurprising that it should have been at an away match.

The problems of last year appear to be persisting and it was yet another arrangement of Field’s senior players that travelled to Fareham Heathens. The eight players missing from the team that defeated Ellingham and Ringwood last week required coach Andy Patience to field his fourth different line-up in as many games.

Field battled hard to stay in contention despite having the odds stacked against them and with 50 minutes gone were still within five points of their more cohesive and well-drilled opponents. At this point an interception, well supported, led to Fareham’s fourth – bonus point – try. This was a score that the visitors were never going to recover from and their hosts ran in two further tries in the last quarter to seal an emphatic victory.

The rate of attrition for Field players was high and around 15 minutes was added to the match for injury time. One of the longest stoppages was for Gareth Crane, who missed the bulk of last season with injury. Fortunately Crane was able to see out the game, as was Harley Orr who had earlier been sidelined with a cut face but returned to the fray sporting a well wrapped bandage. The cut later required numerous stitches.

Previous to his injury, Orr had showed the qualities that make him such a tricky player to play against. Surprisingly nimble and hard to knock down, Orr had a couple of penetrating runs that had the Fareham defence scrambling for cover. Likewise, centre Rushmer was obviously up for the match and relishing the crash ball.

It was Rushmer who secured Field’s first try at the end of the first half. Having been turned over at a scrum on Fareham’s five-metre line, Field worked hard to rescue the ball from the subsequent breakdown allowing Rushmer to barrel over from short distance. Wilks’ trusty boot added the extras to bring Field to within five points at the end of the half.

From the kick-off Fareham made their way up the pitch to score only for Field to repeat the feat with one of their own from the next restart – the nippy Belcher finishing the team’s efforts by going over from close in. It was a mere five minutes after this that Fareham intercepted a Field pass and scored the try that signalled the beginning of the end.

Next week, Field return home to take on Chineham. They will be joined at Penns Place by the second team who host Sandown and Shanklin. Field’s third team, meanwhile, travel to Andover in their next league encounter.