A new side to Petersfield, the Old Cs were promoted at the end of the 2015/16 season having blitzed the Surrey 1 league, collecting the RFU Junior Vase at Twickenham along the way. They carried their form with them into LSW3, finishing fourth last season and currently sit third as part of a quartet of teams fighting for promotion.

According to the Old Cs website, Charles Gower, a former coach at the School described as 'the Architect of Cranleigh Rugger', had a straightforward credo of simple things well done and at speed. The perfect giving and taking of passes, incessant backing up, and relentless pressure. This same philosophy was on show on Saturday as the home side showed their guests how to play rugby ruthlessly.

Once again, the final score doesn’t reflect the game in terms of possession and territory – Field had their fair share of both – but does highlight the level of execution that Field will need to step up to if they want to become competitive in the London leagues.

Whilst Field had opportunities in their opponents 22, they only converted one into points – a well-deserved score less than a minute into the second half for Flanker, Toby Sydenham, who finished a series of quick phase play by the forwards with a try by the posts, converted by Joshh Haslett. Sydenham was named man-of-the-match after the game.

The Old Cs, on the other hand, were ruthlessly clinical with ball in hand and demonstrated great cohesiveness, the players showing an understanding of each other which allowed them to play expansive rugby – mostly on the back of Field errors and, generally, resulting in a breakaway score from within their own half.

With 3-minutes of the first half remaining Field were still in the game at 17-0 - not an impossible target to reach at this level – but imploded whilst threatening to score themselves to allow their hosts to score two more tries, one converted. The second half score showed Field that they could cross the opposition whitewash but frantic defence on their own line and chasing the game when in attack, opened them up to punishing counter attack.

Field came away disappointed with the result but there were positives to be had and a clear path for forward progress. The coaching team will be looking forward to getting a good turnout for training this week as the team prepares for the visit of another ‘new’ side, Battersea Ironsides, who have the same win / loss record as Field but sit just above them courtesy of 2-bonus points.