Petersfield 0 Fareham Heathens 73: DURING the last week Petersfield RFC discovered that they had a cup match on Saturday against Fareham Heathens.

With this discovery coming somewhat out of the blue, the match was thrown open to Field’s second team to ensure that sufficient numbers could be guaranteed to create a squad.

The Heathens had beaten Field’s first team in both their meetings this season and sit comfortably at the top of Hampshire League 1. Add to this record the fact that the Field squad comprised mainly second team players, bolstered by five first team regulars, and the home side’s chances of victory looked extremely doubtful even before the teams took to the pitch.

Heathens withstood an early onslaught before pushing back into Field’s half to open the scoring. From start to finish the visitors demonstrated the team-play, focus and ruthless execution that, barring a large slip up, looks to have taken them to promotion at the end of the season.

Field were generally outgunned and outplayed around the pitch when the ball was in open play but had their usual success in with the scrum. Even though they did fashion some moves, they never looked like scoring.

There were some good displays by Field with a number of players catching the eye. Franko Tomic continues to grow in stature in the second row; aided perhaps by the partnership with Mark Butcher. Fellow forward Jamie Williams also showed signs of his own improvement. Gareth MacGillivray, playing at full-back, put in some impressive tackles to prevent the score from being even higher.

Although some of the second team players on display have run out with the first team this season, the game provided the seconds as a whole with a good experience of what is needed to step up to first team rugby.

Next weekend the first team are away at Farnborough, with whom they drew at the start of December.