Following their stunning victory at Sandown & Shanklin, Field’s 1st XV returned to Penns Place on Saturday for what looked on paper to be a regulation match up against Ellingham & Ringwood.

At the start of the day, Ellingham lay an impressive looking eight in the table. However, the side had failed to win one of their five previous away matches and were some 24-points behind their hosts.

Field started brightly, with centre Jordan Hunter bursting tackles with one his formidable driving runs to open the scoring after just two-minutes. Extras added by stand-off Nick Blumlein.

However, it was the visitors who scored next; Field ill-discipline leading to a penalty attempt in front of the posts just five-minutes later, which allowed the visitors back into the match.

Field left wing, Tom Land, leapt like a salmon to secure the high, hanging restart kick. Immediately putting his side on the front foot and, following a couple of quick breakdowns, the ball found Hunter again. The mobile wrecking ball almost made it to the line but, just as he was about to be swamped in defenders, he flicked a casual pass out of the back of his right hand to send fellow back, Jordan Allan, in through a gaping hole for Field’s second try. Once again, Blumlein made sure that his team took all of the points on offer, extending the lead to 11-points halfway through the first quarter.

Field continued to press, gaining a reward on 15-minutes when they were awarded a penalty on the 22, just to the right of the posts. Usually lamented for not taking points when they were on offer, Field made the choice to kick the penalty. On the face of it this looked like the wrong decision – the home side had their tails up and a successful 5m lineout had the potential to break their guests’ spirit. Blumlein added the easy 3-points creating a two converted-try lead.

It’s not clear if the Red Team thought the game was won but, if they did, they were soon disabused of the notion; firstly the old problem resurfaced and another kickable penalty presented the visitors with an easy 3-points. This was quickly followed by a rare foray by Ellingham down their left wing. Field’s drifting defence looked to have sufficient numbers to deal with the threat but three missed tackles allowed the opposition in for their first try. The simple conversion brought the first quarter to an end and saw Field’s healthy lead reduced to 7-points.
Field continued to battle for their third try but the only scores in the second quarter came from the boot of Blumlein, knocking over two more penalties that perhaps could have been gambled for more.

Almost immediately before halftime, an Ellingham player was sin-binned for a dangerous entry to a ruck but there was no time for Field to take advantage and the sides went in at 23-13 at the break.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their man advantage, Field scored first in the second half; the ball swung wide to Tom Land who used the support inside him to fix the defence before slipping through on the left wing. Blumlein continued his 100% kicking record with his most difficult kick of the game, wide out on the wing.

Ellingham fought back from the restart, setting up a rare passage of play in Field’s 22 and asking questions of Field’s defence. The visitors stuck to their task with a ball that refused to be given up and, eventually, got their reward with a drive over next to the posts. The 14-men of
Ellingham had scored a patient, well-worked second try to nullifying Field’s yellow-card advantage and, with the conversion, bring their hosts back to within 10-points.

Restored to full strength for the Field restart, it was clear that Ellingham believed that they were capable of taking the game and they battled bravely in defence to prevent Field from gaining their fourth, bonus-point-winning try.

Following the quick exchange of scores, the match fell into a twenty-minute arm wrestle, punctuated by injury stoppages as both sides struggled to gain the all-important next score. Field had the upper hand in terms of territory and possession but were still required to defend some insistent Ellingham attacks.

The game was finally put to bed as the final ten-minutes began, as Field worked the phases from right to left before No. 8, Tom Whitehouse, powered up to within 5m of the line. A quick flat pass from scrumhalf, Ethan Ogilvie, hit his loose head prop, Jackson Clark, who crashed through between two defenders, bouncing one aside before dragging the other with him over the line to score next to the right hand upright. Blumlein’s kick capped a perfect performance with the boot and dashed any hopes the visitors had of a losing bonus point.

The action was not complete, however, as with a minute to go, Field hooker, Jamie Williams received a “team” yellow for too many infringements at the breakdown.

While Field were dealing with Ellingham, their main competition in this first half of the season, Alton and Sandown & Shanklin, were at in action at Anstey Park. A comfortable victory for Alton further clipped the wings of the Island side who had suffered their first defeat of the season at home to Field last week. The result sends them back towards the chasing pack of Havant and Millbrook, keeps Field in second place and Alton with ten wins from ten.

Next week is a bye for Field, whilst the other league contenders are in action. This should catch all of the teams up going in to December, so we will have a clearer picture of how the league looks before the end of the year.

Field are next in action on the 7th December when they are home to 6th-placed Bognor. Kick-off is 3pm, as usual.