Romsey travelled to Petersfield on Saturday with high hopes of coming away with a much-needed victory. Romsey had had previous success against Petersfield with their only league win of the season coming in late October.

Coach John Lee and his staff had selected a blend of youthful exuberance with experience and would look to put pressure onto Petersfield early.

The game had an inauspicious start as, directly from the kick-off, Petersfield applied the pressure early, spreading the ball wide with ease, allowing them to get around the Romsey drift defence.

Desperate tackles slowed down the attack, but it was just a delay, as the home side struck in what would be their first of many.

Romsey were eager to show that they were here to play, and after being beaten back from the restart, cut through the Petersfield lines in a series of battering forward runs, punching holes in and around the rucks.

A penalty for tackler not rolling away gave Toby Bull the opportunity to kick Romsey deep into the corner. Phil Cunningham threw in, and in a perfect example of a driving maul, shoved Petersfield up to the try line. A stall, splinter group detached and plunged forward over the line. When the bodies were pulled away, Flanker Sam Arthur came up with the ball. Toby Bull netted the conversion.

Romsey were swiftly back in that position shortly afterward, using an identical method. The same lineout was called, but was held just short of the try-line. A heroic effort from Phil Cunningham breached the try-line, but the referee deemed it to not have been scored, much to the bemusement of the Romsey players.

At this point the game took a turn for the worse for Romsey. The disallowed try killed their momentum, and gave Petersfield all of the go-forward ball. Romsey were going backwards at every scrum, but yet they were doing an incredible job of retaining possession off set-pieces. Romsey did however re-gather themselves and put a huge amount of pressure back on the home side.

With a lot of hard carrying from Ali Wood and Sam Dawson, Romsey pressed up to the Petersfield try line but got denied time after time. Whilst the final score could’ve been a lot worse, it was of great credit to the Romsey players and the defensive work which they had put in during training, to keep on battling until the end of the game. Romsey did have moments were they were in control but, breakdowns in communication and individual errors compounded any positive attacking play which Romsey managed to get deep into Petersfield territory.

The final score was 64-7 to Petersfield.

Man of the Match was awarded to Phil Cunningham.

Romsey 1st XV next takes on Farnborough at home on the 21st February.

The 2nd XV host Fareham Heathens 2nds this Saturday at home, 1430 kick off.

For more details check out the club’s website: www.romseyrufc.co.uk or follow them on twitter: @RomseyRUFC .