Southampton travelled to Petersfield with high hopes after last week's win over Chichester, despite the absence of First Team regulars Josh Fearon, Chris Alston, Tom Howells, Tom Laycock and Tyler Ross. Joe Timmins started at inside centre after impressing off the bench in his debut last week, Robbie Ashby moved to scrum half, while Ian Budd, Pascal Garrard and Dave Ward brought their one hundred and fifty years of rugby experience to the second row, wing and full back respectively.

Southampton started well, pinning Petersfield in their own half and coming away with two penalties from the boot of Tom Humphrey. The scrum was dominant, forcing a number of penalties and turnovers, but Saints struggled with handling errors and were unable to finish off any of the opportunities they created.

Instead it was Petersfield who bagged the game's first try, at this point against the run of play. A break down the left wing was halted but the ball was recycled quickly and found its way infield to a centre coming from depth who found a gap in the defence to run in under the posts. The conversion swung the scoreline in Petersfield's favour at 7-6.

Shortly before half time, things got worse for the visitors as Petersfield again moved the ball quickly out wide to the left. As the attacker dived for the line, Tommy Ashby tried to get himself underneath the ball carrier but only succeeded in wrapping an arm around his neck and earned himself a yellow card. The only reasonable complaint here could have come from the young lad who touched the ball down, only to have his name immediately rubbed from the try-scorers column as the ref awarded a penalty try.

Petersfield were unable to make the man advantage count and instead Southampton had an opportunity at the other end. Joe Timmins found himself in some space and chipped the ball over the defence, but the home side won the foot race and touched the ball down in goal to bring the first half to an end. Petersfield took a 14-6 lead as they headed off into the changing rooms to shelter from the heavy rain that was now falling.

The start of the second half saw Tommy Ashby return to the field with Southampton having not conceded any points with fourteen men. But they were going to have to do it all again after a bizarre moment early in the second half. After conceding four penalties in quick succession in their own half, Captain Jordan Dashwood was summoned to the ref and informed that Southampton had earned a team yellow card - and that he must decide who was going to spend ten minutes on the naughty step. With the forward battle being hotly contested and a source of some success for Southampton, Jordan sacrificed winger Pascal Garrard - who had been involved in precisely zero of the four penalties.

Petersfield made the most of Southampton's infringements, grabbing two crucial penalties to extend their lead to 20-6.

The second half then became a stop-start affair, with every minor injury to the home side seeming to warrant a "time off" and visit from the physio. We cannot possibly speculate what it was about this particular physio that meant so many players were keen for some of her attention... This disrupted Southampton's momentum whilst Petersfield, who often found themselves with players out of breath and out of position, were able to regroup and recover.

Southampton finally had some success through the skipper who scored after a typical Dashwood run which saw him hand off as many people as possible along the way. Tom Humphrey stepped up for the conversion, but as he prepared to start his run up the ref indicated he was out of time leaving Southampton trailing 20-11.

The potential Southampton fightback saw tensions rise amongst the Petersfield pack. A ball carrier appeared to jump into a tackle by Gus Nye, with the Southampton flanker flattening him nonetheless. Time off, physio on, of course... but Petersfield's number six took exception and things were in danger of boiling over, despite the floored player cheerfully admitting "Yeah, that was my fault" as he got up. Fine, tell your flanker... he's trying to get Gus' phone number for a meet up in a car park.

As the game entered the final ten minutes, Southampton scored again through Tom Humphrey who forced his way over and left another set of backs muttering "He should NOT be a winger!" No luck with the conversion, Southampton now had a losing bonus point, but another score would steal the win with five minutes left on the clock.

Another attack down the left saw multiple defenders team up to stop Humphrey. The ball went loose in the tackle, an unidentified foot knocked it into touch, Dave Ward reacted first to take a quick throw to Robbie Ashby. But no - clock's off, physio on, again... This did at least yield a line out Southampton probably didn't deserve and a last chance for a match-winning attack.

The line out was won safely and Saints attacked, the ball eventually making its way to the other side of the park where Pascal Garrard saw an opportunity to make up for his heinous yellow earlier in the game. But as he was swamped by desperate defenders, he chipped it forward only for Petersfield to gather and put it off the park for the win, 20-16.

A frustrating day for Southampton as this was a game they could have won. Dominance in the scrum was often undone by subsequent handling errors, opportunities to exploit mismatches were missed, whilst two yellow cards saw them playing a quarter of the game with fourteen men.

Jordan Dashwood took the Man of the Match award for a number of powerful runs through the defence. Jack Leadbitter and Gus Nye were typically solid in the tackle all afternoon, while Steve Munter was all over the park in support and made a number of breaks himself. Tommy Ashby took the Dick of the Day pint for his high tackle.

Pascal Garrard will have a statue built at Test Park to honour his martyrdom.