Following on from the previous week’s round-robin at Penns Place, Petersfield’s U10s set off to the glorious back drop of Cowdray Ruins for a festival at Midhurst Rugby club. This was quite a daunting prospect for the young squad as they would be facing teams from West Sussex that they had no real experience about.

Field were hoping to change their usual game plan of losing their first match, however, as they were to face the hosts they expected it to be hard work. Field scored tries through van Laun and Chinnock and, putting into practice their training sessions on building a solid defence, held on to beat the hosts 2-1.

Worthing followed and, buoyed by their first win, Field showed excellent communication when in possession and this combined with effective ball handling led to some very fine team tries from West, Anderson, Chinnock, Spencer (2) to seal their second win, 6-0.

Horsham were next with a very intimidating looking side and, as expected, the first half was hard-fought, finishing 0-0. In the second half Field stepped up a level and their strong defence, unforgiving tackling and purposeful rucking and mauling held off the opposition with a try from Spencer making it three wins on the trot.

Chichester were the next opponents and, despite some nerves from Field, their strong game and great teamwork proved too much for Chi and Field had a comfortable win 6-0 with tries from Kis (2), van Laun (2), Spencer and Brooker. One of the opposition coaches summed the performance up nicely with, “…they really looked like they knew what they were doing”!

The final match was against Shoreham, again a team who looked imposing and who Field had never played before. With bodies feeling the aches and pains, Field battled strongly with some huge tackles and once again amazing ball handling lead to tries from Chinnock (2) and Brooker. In the final play Shoreham managed at last to put a try past Field's grudging defence to leave the final score 3-1 to Petersfield.

In five matches Petersfield’s U10s had scored an impressive 18-tries for only 2 conceded. Coaches and parents were very proud of the teamwork and sportsmanship showed from the squad in what was a brilliantly run festival by Midhurst.