u14s win Hampshire Shield Final

Despite heavy rain over the past few days the Hampshire Shield Final took place as scheduled, although it had to be moved to another pitch after the Petersfield and Fordingbridge 1st XVs had created a mud bath during the Hampshire Plate quarter-final played the previous day. Fortunately, the rain held off until the match was over and so whilst conditions were sticky, slippery and slow, the game was anything but.

‘Bridge Captain George O’Reilly lost the toss and the u14s found themselves receiving from the kick off and being put under immediate pressure by a well prepared Petersfield team who started strongly. It wasn’t until the 7th minute that ‘Bridge managed to move up into the Petersfield half courtesy of a penalty kick by Fly Half Tom Goodwin but Petersfield regrouped and came charging straight back. The conditions didn’t lend themselves to flowing, passing rugby and ‘Bridge were guilty of conceding what possession they had by letting the greasy ball slip through their fingers on more than one occasion. However, some excellent rucking at the breakdown and defensive tackling kept out the Petersfield onslaught until the 19th minute when the home team finally scored the try that their possession deserved when they broke through the Fordingbridge line and touched down by the post.

The restart allowed ‘Bridge to get back into the Petersfield half and attempt to stem their attacks and a change of tactics saw the Blues varying their game and kicking more balls. This eventually paid dividends when good pressure from Sam Bishop on the Petersfield backline led to Toby Peebles crashing over to get ‘Bridge’s first score. Tom Goodwin added the conversion. Fordingbridge took heart from the try and the game began to turn in their favour. A few minutes later a typically buccaneering run from Wing Bird Root was ended by a high tackle when only a couple of metres from the try line and from the resultant penalty, Toby Peebles again forced his way over to score. Tom Goodwin made no mistake with the conversion to give Fordingbridge a half time lead of 5 – 14.

Whilst the first half had seen ‘Bridge making the majority of the errors, the second half saw this reversed and when Petersfield knocked on inside the ‘Bridge half, the ball was picked up by Timmy Evans who ran two thirds of the length of the pitch to score under the posts and give Tom Goodwin an easy conversion. However, Petersfield were by no means down and out and ‘Bridge Fullback Dickon Westlake had to made two try saving tackles that had a huge bearing on the outcome of the match. Shortly afterwards, Petersfield were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle, and when the ball came out to Hooker Adam Hill, he spotted a gap in the Petersfield defence and finished well, under pressure, close to the corner flag.

Again Petersfield forced their way into the ‘Bridge half and this time it was the Blues who conceded a penalty deep inside their territory, allowing the home team to break the defensive line and reduce the deficit by 5 points. With the game entering the final few minutes Fordingbridge kept the ball in hand and went through the phases, starting with Jordan Osman and ending with Toby Peebles close to the Petersfield try line. The ‘Bridge back line were queuing up to score behind Peebles and when he was stopped, a simple pass out to Tom Goodwin allowed him to cross the line to make the final score 10 – 31.

Huge credit should go to both teams who created an entertaining and competitive spectacle worthy of a Final. The Petersfield scrum was particularly strong and the ‘Bridge forwards did exceptionally well to retain possession of the ball when under great pressure. The defensive line held firm against the Petersfield attack and an improved rucking performance, along with the familiar strong attacking runs, proved the difference between the two sides on the day.