Petersfield COLTS v Gosport & Fareham COLTS

With the weather forecasts looking a little unsavoury, and with an added heavy shower on earlier in the morning, there was little hope that we would not end up finishing the day looking like drowned rats! How wrong we were!
With a warm Petersfield welcome came a warming in the weather with the sun making a well received appearance.

Bruce Carle (Head Coach), Gary Middleton (Backs) & John Robertson (Forwards) took the warm up, set piece and handling drills before retiring to the changing room for the teams final preparations.

A good crowd had formed for a Sunday afternoon training match, and they were not disappointed.

With Bruce Carle in the middle the game started off with the ball slipping around like a bar of wet soap. The first ruck though sorted this issue out as both teams gave no quarter, setting the tenor for the remainder of the game. At times it was hard to remember that this was a pre-season "training game" to allow all the coaches to asses players, fitness levels, team structures and game plays. Tackles were brutal with the ruck proving a full blooded contest in the contact area.

Gosport opened their account not long after the first set of rucks with Matt John (Scrum Half) showing presence of mind to quickly organise the backs to enable Liam Capper (13) to produce a scything run that split the Petersfield defence, scoring under the posts. This Liam did on two further occasions with the same results.
After Liam's' second try Tim Kadavu (14) added a further with Ti Naivaluleva (10) converting.
The match was played over 4, 20 minute periods that allowed for changes in both teams with Gosport & Fareham lending a few players to Petersfield.
Petersfield rallied in the 2nd quarter putting two tries of their own on the board, one converted, to bring them up to 12 points.
Over the remaining quarters tries from Jack Stillion, Ethan McQuaid and George Crouch, with conversions from Rob MacKinnon (15) and Ti, strengthened Gosport's grip on the game. Ethan's try coming from a brilliant individual break from the half-way line, outpacing the chasing defenders, going in under the posts. George being set up in the corner with silky hands from Jack Stillion.
Support play started to improve in the final quarter with the forwards fitness starting to show through as pre-season training took over.

The final whistle being blown with Gosport running in winners at 45-12.

A lot for the players to take away, and also for the coaches.

Many thanks to Petersfield RFC for the warm welcome and great match.