Pethy win again in Bristol

03/02/07 - Somerset One: Imperial 3 v 26 North Petherton

Report by Lloyd Williams, as printed in the Bridgwater Mercury

There were late changes in the starting line up for this match with firstly lock Mike Coles passing a late fitness test and stepping back into the engine room to partner Ben Harvey. Hooker Miles McNeillie moved to the bench due to a neck injury that worsened after Thursday's training session, and this meant that Matt Burge started at prop and Matt Glanville hooked. Also Phil Hambley was available for the first time on the bench, which meant that Pethy fielded their biggest pack for some time.

Pethy have always struggled away at Imperial and many of the younger players could not remember the last time that they had won there. It was business as usual in terms of defence, both forwards and backs stood up and few tackles were missed throughout. The first half produced very little flowing rugby from either team. Imperial kicked to the corners with much success, pinning Pethy back whenever they had begun to move up the field. The Pethy scrum was solid which was a major boost to the team. The lineout was also relatively sound, and even though Glanville had only 5 minutes practice throwing before the game, he did an outstanding job.

Pethy spent very little time in the first-half in scoring positions. There was the odd good break, but handling mistakes meant that Imperial gained possession and kicked Pethy back into their own 22. After a few good charges from Simon Gingell and Mike Coles, Pethy were in a real position to score just inside of the home 22, but a mix up in the backs saw the ball returned deep into the Pethy half. There were a few other half chances, the best of which was for centre Russell Williams who was almost clean through after some good interplay, but was just brought down by a tap tackle. Another opportunity saw the ball moved across the pitch deep in the opposition 22, and with a 3 v 1 Tom or Ben Williams had a clear run to the line but the final pass went behind the two oncoming attackers.

When Pethy were pushed back towards their line they made hard work of clearing the danger. There were too many missed touches from both penalty and clearance kicks that the Imperial back three ran back, gaining vital ground as, for a brief period, Pethy's tackling was poor. Petherton soaked up huge amounts of pressure for a long period of time until five minutes before the end of the half they stole the ball and Lloyd Williams put up a high clearance kick which caught the home side off guard with only one man back. The ball bounced nicely for wing Ben Williams who had a clear run in from his own ten metre line. Tom Williams easily converted from in front of the sticks. The rest of the half was much the same, and just before the half time whistle Pethy conceded their first penalty in a kickable position, which was converted for a half-time lead of 7-3.

In the second half it was a different game with the Pethy pack beginning to dominate, resulting in the team being able to put more phases of play together. The forwards attacked around the fringes with power and the backs began to put some moves together that saw Pethy spend very little time in their own half.

A scrummage on the home team's 10 metre line provided some quick ball and a long pass from fly-half Lloyd Williams to outside centre Rob Havill saw him draw defenders across before releasing full-back Tom Williams in behind the defence. He then off-loaded the ball to winger Stuart Pearn who drew the last defender and passed back inside to Tom Williams again who went on to score under the posts. Williams then converted his own try to put Pethy in a commanding position.

Imperial began conceding penalties around the breakdown as they tried to slow the game down. Tom Williams unusually missed a kickable penalty, but the next penalty was kicked to the corner and resulted in a try after the Pethy pack got a strong rolling maul going from the line-out and Captain James Lees touched the ball down after a 10 metre drive over the line. Tom Williams missed the difficult conversion from out wide.

After 65 minutes Russell Williams went off injured, Matt Brown moved to centre and Phil Hambley came on at blindside flanker for his first-team debut. During the next 10-15 minutes of play Pethy again absorbed all that was thrown at them with some big hits in defence, notably one bone shuddering tackle from Matt Brown which left the Imperial winger on the floor for some time and another from Hambley who knocked his opposite flanker backwards at a rate of knots. This tackle from Hambley produced turnover ball which was spread wide quickly and resulted in a second try under the posts for Tom Williams. He made the conversion to take his personal tally to 16 points in the match.

The last 10 minutes was all Petherton and only a series of silly knock-on's and a few incorrect decisions stopped them from scoring further tries, whilst Hambley continued to make his presence known in the tackle area.

Simon Gingell was outstanding for Petherton in both defence and at the breakdown, often stealing the ball or slowing it down for the opposition, and the rest of the forwards battled well throughout and produced some excellent periods of play. The backs covered well in defence, showed good hands and at times produced some good running angles. This was the sixth match this season in which a try was not conceded, a credit to the commitment of all in defence.

Up next for Petherton is the re-arranged league fixture at home against Bristol Barbarians whom they only narrowly beat two weeks ago in Whitchurch.

Tries: T.Williams (2), B.Williams, Lees

Cons: T.Williams (3)

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. Havill, 12. R.Williams (Rep Hambley 65), 11. S.Pearn, 10. L.Williams, 9. Jarvis, 1. M.Burge, 2. Glanville, 3. Webber, 4. Coles, 5. Harvey, 6. Gingell, 7. M.Brown, 8. Lees. Rep Unused: McNeillie.