Petersfield 26 Tottonians 30 – Report
It is two from two as Tottonians maintained their faultless start to the 2024/25 season with a very hard fought victory over promoted Petersfield on a sun-drenched afternoon in East Hampshire, holding onto top spot in the early league table.
PETERSFIELD 26 TOTTONIANS 30
Penns Place, Petersfield
Saturday 14th September 2024
Regional 2 South Central – match 2
There were a number of changes to the side that defeated Chobham last weekend with Jamie Laing, Tom Gregory, Ali Ramus, the returning Callum Turvey and debutant Nic Jansen all coming in for their first starts of the season and they set about their task against a strong Petersfield side.
Up against the men in red for the first time in the league in 21 years, Tottonians stamped their authority on the game early when they collected a penalty after just three minutes and then a scintillating 50-22 from the fly-half put the visitors in prime position once again.
With Petersfield firmly on the back foot, a strong carry from the impressive Connor Andrews spread the ball wide and found winger Leo Tongue to slice through to put T’s 8-0 to the good.
As expected, the home side did not sit back and, with both sides looking to get the ball through the hands at every opportunity, it was a very open contest.
Totts came close against just before the quarter mark but were penalised in front of the posts but the hosts saw Karter Whittock yellow carded shortly afterwards and Totts collected another three points.
However, despite making a plethora of handling errors and indifferent choices, the home side were always looking dangerous and they finally pieced together a move that allowed Seb Tuff to score in the corner with former Hampshire U20s captain Nick Blumlein kicking the conversion for a 7-11 half-time scoreline.
The half-time break seemed to suit the visitors as they came out strongly in the second half, so strongly that centre Tom Tully opened his try scoring account in the green, black and white when he intercepted a pass and sprinted some 40 metres to go in under the sticks just four minutes in.
Having quelled a response from the home side, Totts won a line-out and player of the match Ali Ramus took the ball well, recycled well from the home sides defensive efforts and an excellent move through the hands of both forwards and backs and some clever switches let Tongue in for his second of the afternoon to open up a strong 25-7 advantage.
The 18-point gap in the sides seemed to wake up Petersfield who started to make some serious in roads into the Tottonians defence and, first former Hampshire senior captain Liam Perkins took full advantage of some coughed up possession from the visitors and then, just three minutes later, Tom Gregory’s errant pass was snapped up by the Petersfield centre Will Matthews and he went the distance to cut the arrears back to just four points.
With nerves starting to ramp up, Tottonians gave themselves both the try bonus point and a little bit of breathing space as a fine move having charged down a Petersfield kick, Harry Dolbear and Cam Flint set up a drive to the line and it was the scrum-half who came up with the ball over the line with just 13 minutes left on the clock.
But, once again, the hosts were not done and they set up a grandstand finish with their fourth try of the game as they drove over from a line out following a penalty – Blumlein missing his first kick from the tee which allowed the scoreline to stay at 26-30.
There was a little bit of needle as the clock ran down but Tottonians held out to record their first victory in East Hampshire this century (it was in 1999 and we have only played here once since!) but, more importantly, all five points for the second game in succession to be the only side with maximum points in the league after two rounds.
“I think we were worthy winners but we gave them a couple of scores that we shouldn’t have,” admitted Director of Rugby Phil Osman. “We dug deep and got the bonus point and played some very good rugby at times but a bit scratchy at others. They have a big pack and caused us problems up front.
“But we defended really well, which sounds ridiculous when we have given away four tries but they tended to come from daft mistakes by us.
“However, I am really delighted with the win as not many sides come here and do that.”
Hear what coaches Phil and Tim Osman had to say at full-time in our exclusive post match video.
