Petersfield select an almost unchanged First XV from that which won their final league match away at Portsmouth last week. The last time Petersfield met Vandals in a London South West Three league match was on 2 April 2022 at Penns Place when Petersfield’s close victory 36-33 having trailed until the last six minutes, a Petersfield converted try won the match, for the hosts to leapfrog the visitors into second place in the league.

Vandals end their 23-24 league campaign in third place winning 16 out of 22 games. Vandals Surrey/Sussex Counties 1 league form shows that they are used to high scoring open rugby similar in style to Petersfield. The host will want to contain the visitors by their strong defence and take every scoring opportunity from the platform provided by their pack and nimble backs.

The selection this week is missing two speedy backs from the starting fifteen the unavailable Toby Colwood and Sam Dawes and front row replacement Dan Luff moving to start for the seconds. They are replaced by the recovered from an ankle injury George Davis who starts at right wing while Tom Land fresh from his travels comes in at fullback. The replacements are the reliable Ryan Wilkie, Miles Sampson and the returning forward and pack top try scorer Nic Wilde.

A word from 1st XVs Rhys Bowen -

With an immensely successful league campaign wrapped up, we're now fully focused on the cup. Training this week has been intense and detail oriented as we look forward to playing a team we've not played for some time! It's exciting to play a team that's experienced a similar level of success, albeit in a parallel league.

First XV Selection

1. Jackson Clark 2. ⁠Sam Brown 3. ⁠Dan Sargent 4. Zak Jenkins 5. ⁠Franko Tomic 6. ⁠Matt Momber 7. ⁠Karter Whittock 8. ⁠Rhys Bowen 9. ⁠Alex Duffus 10. ⁠Nick Blumlein 11. ⁠Greg Jansen 12. ⁠Will Mathews 13. ⁠Matt McLean 14. ⁠George Davis 15. ⁠Tom Land 16. Ryan Wilkie 17. Nic Wilde 18. Oli Hunt 19. Miles Sampson. 20. Sam Dawes

Cup Rules allow up to seven replacements.

The Second XV has a strong selection including several players with first xv experience and ability who face Winchester seconds in a step up in expected strength of their opponents from those that the twos have been putting to the sword in their league on a regular basis.

A word from the 2nd XVs Gerry Devlin -

Facta Non Verbal (deeds not words)

Second XV Selection

1. Mark Butcher 2. Jamie Williams 3. Dan Luff 4. Will Cross 5. Tom Potter 6. Toby Booth 7. Jake
Bosher 8. Ryan Morse 9. Will Pritchard 10. Ethan Ogilvie 11. Joe Potter 12. Seb Tuff 13. Eddie
Matthews 14. Connah Bason 15. Jordan Allan 16. Eryn Eales 17. Harry McGarr 18. Ben Thomas 19. Gerry Devlin