Portsmouth 14 Petersfield 8: PETERSFIELD’S first team opened their second season in the London South West 3 league with an away match against Portsmouth.

Field started brightly and were applying pressure in the last third of the pitch when their hosts broke away to score a long distance try which was duly converted.

A penalty conceded by Portsmouth for collapsing a scrum provided Field with a lineout where a switch drive and a quickly splintering maul sent Franko Tomic bundling over the line. Nick Blumlein pushed the conversion narrowly wide.

Five minutes after their try the visitors had the chance to take the lead with a penalty kick, which was conceded by the hosts for sacking a tap-and-go penalty from an offside position – an act that brought with it a yellow card for the infringing forward. Blumlein missed the penalty, his kick hitting the left-hand upright.

The hosts, restored again to 15, then had a man advantage when Field’s Tomic received a yellow card and was sent to the sin bin following a string of Petersfield infringements around Portsmouth’s driving maul.

The hosts coughed up a penalty in front of the posts in the second half, and Blumlein was on hand to coolly slot the kick, taking Field into the narrowest of leads.

When Blumlein was adjudged to have been in an offside position when stopping a tap and go penalty move, the referee awarded a penalty try and sent the young stand-off to the sin bin.

The hosts saw out the rest of the game to win 14-8.