FOR the second year in a row, Petersfield RFC’s impressive facilities at Penns Place were selected by the Hampshire RFU to host three of the county youth tournaments.

The U11 teams were divided into four pools of five, with only Guernsey crying off due to the bad weather.

Petersfield, U10 semi-finalists last year, proved worthy of their seeding as they won all their pool games. Well-drilled moves and textbook play earned ’Field a 5-0 win against Fareham Heathens.

In the next match, Whitear and Horsfall combined brilliantly for the winning try against Fawley.

Basingstoke put up a good fight with some tight defence and powerful attacks, but ’Field were equally obdurate in defence and managed a breakaway for the only try of the game.

In the last pool match, Trojans scored the first try of the day against Petersfield. Fired up by this, ’Field promptly replied with two tries to win the game.

Petersfield met the high-scoring New Milton side in the semi-finals. ’Field defended superbly and, following a fine interception from Horsfall, broke through to score the first try. New Milton bounced back, muscling their way through for two tries.

The game could have gone either way and it is testament to the Petersfield squad that they never backed off and pushed the eventual tournament winners right to the end.