PETERSFIELD 12, BATTERSEA 15

PETERSFIELD suffered their first home loss of the league season in a tight match against visitors Battersea Ironsides.

The bright side of an otherwise gloomy day was the losing bonus point which keeps promoted ’Field just below halfway in London 3 South-West.

Battersea arrived at Penns Place with a similar record to Petersfield – three wins, three defeats – and those losses had come by narrow margins against stronger teams.

This time, Ironsides reversed that trend with a winning try in the dying minutes.

“It was a very bitter pill to take,” said coach James Alder, but he took heart from the positives in Petersfield’s performance. “With players moving in and out of availability every week, fielding a settled team has been a challenge. To the players’ credit, they took to the task with enthusiasm and vigour and came within minutes of another win.”

Having missed a penalty kick, Battersea opened the scoring with an unconverted try from a driven line-out.

This was answered straight from the kick-off by Toby Sydenham, Petersfield’s man of the match. Battersea’s failure to field the restart was punished by the rampaging Matt Momber who secured the ball and set up the first of several quick phases before Sydenham burst through the defence for the finish.

Joshh Haslett’s conversion put ’Field in front and the sides remained evenly matched until after the break when the reds extended their lead with a joyous surging passage of open-field play, finished this time by full-back Jack Glancy.

Haslett’s kick was blown off course by the gusting wind, but Battersea now had a seven-point deficit to make up.

For most of the game, Petersfield tried to play open, attacking rugby, but too often promising moves came to nothing due to inaccuracies in completion or poor decision-making.

The well-drilled and experienced London side meanwhile stuck to their uncompromising style and two more driven lineouts breached the home defences, the last score snatching victory away from ’Field.

Petersfield no doubt learned valuable lessons from the game, but their desire to play positive, front-foot rugby is likely to remain undiminished.

They cannot hope to gain much more than the ball from their continued dominance of the scrum and should perhaps look at their tactics surrounding this set-piece.

Petersfield will need their squad to be entire, fit and on-song if they are to take anything from their visit to Old Emanuel this Saturday. The New Malden side are top of the league with seven wins from seven games, with the four-try bonus point gained in all bar one.