Petersfield survived a late onslaught to secure a 29-28 home win over Wimborne in South Central Two on Saturday.

In the sixth minute Wimborne kicked from hand to turn Petersfield, only for Nick Blumlein to take a clean catch on the left and move right, making metres to pass to the charging full back Charlie Muir, who threaded his way through a flat footed Wimborne defence, making 30 metres to pass to the supporting scrum half Alex Duffus, still with 30 metres to run, to score under the posts. Blumlein converted to make it 7-0.

Fifteen minutes later Wimborne broke into Petersfield’s 22. After several attacking phases a Wimborne knock on gave Petersfield’s forwards a scrum. From a clean pick up four more phases saw Petersfield lose the ball. Wimborne executed several phases before they crossed the try line close to the posts for a converted try, and it was 7-7.

Soon after the restart number eight Liam Perkins was yellow carded for a high tackle. From the ensuing penalty Wimborne retained possession through strong running, Petersfield’s weak tackling and a fractured defence, allowing Wimborne to cross the line for a further converted try and lead 14-7.

Perkins returned eight minutes before the interval. Taking a penalty line out 20 metres from the try line, Petersfield’s Franco Tomic caught the ball and Perkins broke through the Petersfield maul to be tackled just a metre short.

With the ball recycled, Tomic attempted to break through from ten metres but was halted. Petersfield introduced their backs, who passed through two players where left wing Miles Sampson came off his wing to take a pop pass and dive over between the posts for a converted try to level the score.

With two minutes left of the half Wimborne lost a player to a yellow card and from the restart Nick Blumlein kicked long in field for Liam Perkins to leap like a salmon to catch before making 20 metres at pace only to be tackled a metre short.

But Miles Sampson acrobatically picked up the ball and touched down as part of a forward roll in the corner for an unconverted try, and Petersfield led 19-14 at half-time.

After a period of stalemate Wimborne infringed and Blumlein kicked a penalty to make it 22-14.

With an hour played Wimborne formed three pods of forwards to retain the ball and gradually break down Petersfield’s defence to rumble over for a converted try which pulled it back to 22-21.

From broken play Petersfield had the ball on the right wing, and through five pairs of hands it reached the accelerating Seb Tuff 30 metres out. With full back Charlie Muir on his outside, Tuff sidestepped a defender and touched down. Blumlein’s difficult conversion made it 29-21.

Miles Sampson saw yellow late on and Wimborne seized the opportunity, securing the ball and through their well organised pack advancing upfield to score under the posts. The conversion pulled Wimborne to within a point but they were unable to score again in the minute that remained.

Chris Todd