Petherton just edged out in scrappy game

04/11/06 - Somerset One: North Petherton 10 v 12 Winscombe

Report from the Bridgwater Mercury

Petherton's hopes of promotion this season were left hanging by a thread after a disappointing defeat against joint league-leaders Winscombe. The perfect playing conditions failed to bring the best out of both sides in what proved to be a messy match. Petherton, although out-scrummaged, could have ended the visitors unbeaten record, but chose the wrong options too often and failed to make their second half territorial advantage count.

Although Winscombe had a back line bursting with pace, they too were guilty of dropping the ball when in good positions, particularly in the first half when their back three counter-attacked well only for the final pass to go astray.

The home side had the better of the opening exchanges, scoring a try after five minutes from a well-worked line-out drive, finished off by flanker Ross Finlayson touching down. Full-back Tom Williams was unable to convert from the touchline.

As the game became littered with errors, Winscombe hit the post with a penalty attempt after 12 minutes, and generally dominated the territory and possesion playing down the slope. They eventually put together a successful move after 31 minutes, scoring a well-taken try wide on the right. The conversion was missed leaving the score at 5-5.

Winscombe then struck again a couple of minutes later when their speedy full-back scored a breakaway try after collecting a kick ahead from the Winscombe 22 to score near the posts. The conversion was made for a 12-5 lead.

Led by fiesty hooker Miles McNeillie, Petherton then hit back well as the game improved and McNeillie was stopped just short of the try-line after a break by fly-half Lloyd Williams. A minute before the break, another Lloyd Williams orchestrated move and some great support play ended with Tom Williams forcing his way over in the right-hand corner. Again, the tough conversion was missed.

Missed kicks, although very difficult, proved crucial in the end as neither side could score in the second half. Lloyd Williams failed narrowly with a long-range drop-goal attempt as Pethy tried to make the advantage of playing down the slope count.

Surprisingly, given the earlier success of their driving line-out, the home side opted to go for goal with a penalty from 42 metres, which was unfortunately mis-kicked by Tom Williams.

The final minutes brought a replacement appearence by Winscombe's heavyweight coach Graham Buller, the former Bridgwater captain, who made his experience count when killing the ball at a ruck, as Petherton tried desparately to force a winning score from their own half. Pethy flanker Ross Finlayson was sin-binned for the last five minutes following a series of Winscombe scrums near the Petherton try-line, and one last-ditch attempt to score from the home side was snuffed out by the visiting defence, who tackled well throughout and probably just deserved to win a tight match.

Tries: Finlayson, T.Williams

Cons:

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. R.Williams, 12. Jarvis, 11. Archer, 10. L.Williams, 9. Ryburuk, 1. H.Brown (Rep. Glanville), 2. McNeillie, 3. Newton, 4. Gingell, 5. Coles, 6. Mantyk, 7. Finlayson, 8. Lees. Rep Unused: Gibbs.