Pethy slump to a fourth league defeat in a row

11/11/06 - Somerset One: Broad Plain 20 v 3 North Petherton

Report by Lloyd Williams

Traveling away has not been a strong point so far this season, and commitment to training seems to drop in the week running up to an away game, as there are often players with commitments who cannot travel. Petherton went away with 16 players this week and had to name club coach Kim O’Connor as a front-row replacement. Six players in the starting line-up did not start last week’s game and key players were missing from the second row, with Mike Coles (injury) and Simon Gingell (work) unable to play. Captain James Lees was also unable to travel. There were even more problems in the front row where the ever improving Rob Newton couldn’t travel due to work, the experienced Harley Brown is injured, and Matt Burge has recently retired.

Broad Plain played a kicking game early on and there was no real attacking play by either team. Penalties were traded during the first 20 minutes, before the home side missed two or three shots on goal. When Pethy did win the ball and tried to put phases together the home team played hard and aggressive at the break-down, often killing the ball. The home team had no surprises and often resorted to some dangerous and dirty play throughout. The referee did not help matters with the game resulting in penalty after penalty and stoppage after stoppage. Pethy struggled in the set play, line-outs only produced half the normal ball and it was often messy. Scrums were a disaster area, with the pack struggling to win any ball. Midway through the first half a lineout on the opposition line resulted in a strong forward drive, which looked to be going over the line only for the referee to ignore the advantage and whistle for a penalty in Petherton’s favour. The second lineout was lost and the chance was gone. Soon after a half break in the backs almost saw Russ Williams go free but was soon hauled down. With two minutes to go to half-time the home side had a break down the blind of the Pethy 22 which resulted in a converted try for a 10-3 lead.

In the second half the scrum again came under even more pressure and Petherton struggled to get any clean ball to feed what seemed to be a strong and dangerous backline. Early in the second half Petherton’s frustrations with the opposition’s style of play was again evident after winger Ben Williams suffered a bite to the hand, and all the referee could do was get the captain’s together yet again. Steve Doyle was sin binned early on in the second half for a ‘slap’ that the referee said he had not seen and went on hearsay, as every breakdown seemed to result in a number of off-the-ball incidents. Doyle was then unfortunate to be sent off after he was yellow carded again near the end of the match, after retaliating to some more dubious play at a ruck as another pile-up ensued.

Broad Plain managed to score two more tries from line-outs deep in the Pethy 22. The first resulted in a well worked overlap created by continual forward drives and the second from a ruck on the 5 meter line in which the ball seemed to be still on the Petherton side, yet was somehow turned over by the home side and put down in the corner. Overall Pethy felt that they could have done better after containing the home side for long periods of time, but as a result of not winning enough set plays and not getting clean quick ball from the loose, they never really got their attacking game going.

The few positives that came from a disappointing week for Petherton were that every player stood up and showed commitment for the team, and it was a very good defensive performance by all with very few tackles missed. Carl Jarvis made some big tackles as did most of the back line at some stage. The forwards worked tirelessly around the rucks and mauls and the back row of Brown, Mantyk and Finlayson never stopped. Special mention to the new caps John Webber and Nick Pocock who were called up at the last minute; they held their own and played as if they had been in the team all season.

This week Petherton have to pull together for two Cup games, the first a tough test down at Bideford, unbeaten in Devon 1 and on Sunday away to Burnham. Both matches will test the depth of the Petherton squad and the commitment of players to train in the coming week.

Tries:

Cons:

Pens: T.Williams

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. R.Williams, 12. Havill, 11. Jarvis, 10. L.Williams, 9. Ryburuk, 1. Glanville, 2. McNeillie, 3. Webber, 4. Doyle, 5. Pocock, 6. Mantyk, 7. Finlayson, 8. M.Brown. Reps Unused: Kirk, K.O’Connor