Comfortable victory for Petherton

22/04/06 - Friendly: North Petherton 48 v 12 Tor 2nd XV

With no league match following the early season demise of Old Ashtonians, Tor 2nds had contacted the club looking for a game, and with their first team having finished runners up in the Somerset Premier this season, this was expected to be a difficult match. However, after two tries in the first two minutes by Petherton Winger Ben Williams, the home side were rarely troubled as they ran out comfortable winners.

After the kick-off from the visiting side failed to go ten metres and resulted in a Petherton scrum, a back-row move followed by some good handling from the backs put Ben Williams over in the corner. A minute later this was repeated when full-back Simon Freeman sold a dummy to the on-rushing defence to again put Williams in the clear for a simple touchdown. Both conversions from wide out were missed by centre Lloyd Williams.

Following this quick-fire start the home side relaxed somewhat and allowed Tor to have their best period of the game, and following a couple of good driving mauls towards the Petherton posts, good handling by their backs saw them score in the corner. The conversion was missed leaving the score at 10-5. After that wake-up call the Petherton scrum began to dominate their opponents, and from a Tor scrummage that was shoved backwards, Petherton scrum-half Kev Ryburuk was able to take advantage of the loose ball and make it to the try-line. This time the conversion was made by fly-half Mark Sutherland-Earl for a 17-5 lead.

To their credit, Tor did not come to make up the numbers, and they again applied pressure on the Petherton line with another big driving maul which was held up over the line. Petherton were able to turn over the ensuing 5-metre scrum and clear to touch on the 22, but following the resulting Tor line-out, some more good handling by their backs led to another score in the corner. Tor's fly-half made an excellent conversion from near the touch-line to make the half-time score 17-12.

Playing down the slope in the second half, Petherton were eventually able to dominate their opponents as they should have done from the start, running in a further 5 tries. The first of these was scored by Lloyd Williams who side-stepped his way through the defence to run in under the posts from just inside his own half, a score again converted by Sutherland-Earl.

An injury in the Tor pack meant that scrums were to be uncontested for the last 20 minutes which led to some respite for the visiting pack, as the home side began to run the ball as much as possible. Petherton began to ring the changes including the introduction of Morganians players Paul Grimstead at Prop and Flanker Shane Andrews, who have trained with Petherton throughout the season. After this some good mauling from a line-out outside the opposition 22 led to one of the more unexpected sights of the day, that of Prop Forward Matt Burge driving over the line from 10 metres out, his first try in four years.

The next score came from centre Rob Havill, a player whom the club are hoping to sign from Weston, who was eventually given the ball in some space and was able to demonstrate his blistering pace as he ran in from the half-way line. The last two tries were scored by forwards Simon Gingell and Steve Doyle. Second row Gingell showed good pace on his return to the side following a broken rib, and finished off some good handling by back-rows Shane Andrews and Ross Finlayson by running in from outside the opposition 22. Steve Doyle then rounded off some more good handling a couple of minutes later diving over under the posts. Mark Sutherland-Earl finished with four conversions as the scoreline eventually reflected the home side's dominance.

Team: 15. Freeman, 14.B Williams, 13. Havill, 12. L Williams, 11. A Walford, 10. Sutherland-Earl, 09. Ryburuk, 01. Burge, 02. Stone, 03. Glanville (Rep.Grimstead), 04. Gingell, 05. B Walford (Rep.Doyle), 06. Mantyk, 07. McNeillie (Rep.Finlayson), 08. Lees (Rep.Andrews)