Superb Petherton rout the league leaders

13/01/07 - Somerset One: North Petherton 36 v 0 Old Sulians

Report by Jim Keay from the Bridgwater Mercury

Playing to their strengths, compact driving mauls and fearless defence, earned depleted North Petherton this memorable victory over the leaders at Beggars Brook on Saturday.

It was only the second defeat of the season for Bath-based Sulians. They felt hard done by, having had more than 40 penalties awarded against them compared with around a dozen for the home side.

Three of Petherton's five tries came from driving mauls, created by penalty kicks to the corner. Sulians just could not cope with these, while Petherton skipper James Lees and Simon Gingell were completely dominant in the line-out and Ben Walford made many hard yards with his powerful running.

Ross Finlayson gave another excellent exhibition of open-side flanker play until he limped off with ten minutes left, while Lloyd Williams bossed the whole game at fly-half.

Straight from the kick-off, the home side conceded a penalty, but the kick was missed. That was Sulians' best opportunity of the half, despite the fact that they had the wind and slope.

A kick-ahead and quick follow-up tackle on the full-back from wing Ben Williams, assisted by Finlayson and full-back Chris Burge, led to the first try after 14 minutes. Gingell caught the resulting line-out throw and Finlayson dived over from the back of the maul for Lloyd Williams to land a tricky conversion.

Nine minutes later, it was hard-working prop John Webber's turn to get on the scoresheet after a Lees catch had led to another driving maul. Lloyd Williams converted again.

Although Sulians had their moments, they were foiled repeatedly by the referee's whistle, bad handling and wrong options. The home side, by contrast, hardly put a foot wrong and Lloyd Williams missed a penalty before landing one after 34 minutes to make the half-time score 17-0.

In the second half, strong home pressure ended after 51 minutes with Lees going over following a free kick for crooked feeding. Lloyd Williams converted, then missed when Finlayson touched down his second try following a penalty to the corner - 29-0.

Midway through the half, two players from Sulians and home centre Russ Williams were sin-binned in separate incidents. One of the visitors was a prop, which put them under even more pressure up front, and their scrum began to go backwards at a rate of knots.

On 67 minutes, scrum-half Karl Jarvis and No 8 Lees worked a move from a scrum, enabling Matt Brown, normally a back-row forward but in this game a powerhouse at centre, to crash through several tackles for the final try, converted by Lloyd Williams.

Tries: Finlayson (2), Webber, Lees, M.Brown

Cons: L.Williams (4)

Pens: L.Williams

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. C.Burge, 14. B.Williams, 13. M.Brown, 12. R.Williams, 11. S.Pearn, 10. L.Williams, 9. Jarvis, 1. M.Burge, 2. McNeillie, 3. Webber (Rep. Glanville 72), 4. Coles, 5. B.Walford, 6. Gingell, 7. Finlayson (Rep Rybaruk 70), 8. Lees.