PORTSMOUTH III 5, Petersfield II 36 (Hants Solent League 2). Petersfield’s development squad travelled to Portsmouth’s ‘Rugby Camp’ for action and made it three wins on the bounce.

This was by far ’Field’s strongest squad of the season, but they managed only one score in the first quarter, Steve Woolcombe putting Dan Giles away for the try. By the end of a scrappy first half, the visitors had improved to three tries against Portsmouth’s one.

’Field brought on their entire bench for the second half and the impact of these players was immediate. Despite a couple of sin-binnings, they scored tries regularly, starting with Chad White’s darting, solo effort.

Petersfield eventually ran out easy winners, scoring six well-worked tries, three converted. The returning Paul Hogden looked very powerful and Sam Wilks and Zack Jenkins impressed with their pace.

The result raised Petersfield to sixth in the table, well on track to threaten the top three by Christmas.