Martock comfortably beaten by in-form North Petherton

31/03/07 - Somerset One: North Petherton 67 v 0 Martock

Report by Lloyd Williams, Photos by Chris Hancock

Captain James Lees touches down the first try of the match following a fine individual run

The match was sponsored by the Swan Inn this week and there was a small crowd to watch Pethy play a team that they had beaten convincingly earlier on in the season. Captain James Lees won the toss and elected to play up the slope with the strong wind unusually blowing up the pitch.

Pethy started the game with another poor week of training behind them and it showed at the start. The visitors collected the ball from kick-off and held onto it for the first 10 minutes. Pethy gave away silly penalties and let the opposition run at them. A mix-up in defence saw the Martock fly-half break the first line of defence from his own 22 meter line and then continue to jink his way down into the Pethy 10 breaking through yet more tackles.

This shocked Pethy into action and from that point on for the rest of the half Martock had very little possession. The home side scored 7 tries, the first scored by James Lees after he found himself in the backs just outside of the opposition 22 and was released through a gap to score under the posts. The backs were often unable to break through on first phases but the quick ball that the forwards produced at nearly every breakdown meant that the Petherton backline were attacking before Martock were able to organise their defence.

During the first half winger Dan Stewart, starting his first game for the first team after a couple of recent substitute appearences, scored a quick fire hat-trick after some good passing out of contact and unselfish play by Pethy gave him three straightforward run-ins. Just before the end of the half Dan scored his fourth, this time a fine individual effort after receiving the ball 15 meters from the line. He beat the first man and was tackled just short by two defenders before bravely stretching out and grounding the ball just before he was bundled out of play.

Dan Steward evades the Martock defence with Rob Havill (right) and Chris Burge in close support

Other tries in the first came from speedy centre Rob Havill who found a gap between the Martock centre’s and ran it in from the half way line. Flanker Simon Gingell also ran in a try from the visitor’s 22 meter line after a whole team effort that started deep in the Pethy half. Gingell also crossed the line soon after following a break from half-way by full-back Tom Williams but the try was not awarded. Also prop Harley Brown, with a now regular individual run, scored from the visitor’s 10 meter line after taking the ball from the back of a maul and showing good pace to out run the opposition backs to score under the posts.

Apart from the start Pethy dominated most areas of play, but whenever Martock had a scrum their number eight was often making ground with a pick and go. First tackles were missed and defenders often went too high and were pushed off by the big eight. Tom Williams managed to convert 4 out of 5 tries in the half, missing one from the touchline. Lloyd Williams took over and went on to miss one kick but then he kicked the last conversion of the half from out wide.

Now going down the slope in the second half Pethy had hoped to continue with the intensity that was producing a try every few minutes. However, the half turned into a stop start event, with injuries, and constant penalties from both sides, as well as the odd disagreement between the teams who began to get frustrated with some decisions and took it out on each other. All this meant that the second half never got going. It took Pethy 10 minutes to increase the score when Harley Brown scored his second after a quickly taken penalty by scrum-half Carl Jarvis. He quickly passed to Lees who then put Brown into space to run-in from close range. Tom Williams then scored straight from the re-start after a good catch followed by some quick hands through the backs put Williams into space and he out-paced the remaining defenders to score. Matt Burge also touched down soon after from another quickly taken penalty inside the Martock 22. Tom converted his own try but Lloyd Williams missed the others.

With 15 minutes to go Martock were down to 14 after a string of injuries. To be fair to the visitors they continued to battle hard and began to make it difficult for Pethy to get quick ball to the backs. They also started to disrupt the Pethy scrum and lineouts. After a clever kick from the Martock centre, Pethy had a lineout 5 meters from their line, which was probably only the second time that they had gotten into the Pethy 22. A poor line out meant the visitors had a 5 meter scrum. The scrum collapsed and Matt Burge stayed down with a neck injury, and an ambulance was called soon after. After some discussions the visitors were happy to stop the match, and although Captain James Lees said that the game could continue on the second team pitch, there had been more than 60 minutes play which meant that the result would stand and the match could be abandoned. Matt Burge was given the all clear after a quick visit to A and E.

Fly-half Lloyd Williams (10) unusually finds himself at the bottom of a ruck, but he appears to have secured the ball with the Pethy pack taking a moment to relax and leaving him to it

There were both positives and negatives for Petherton from a match that was so open and hard to play to a game plan. The off-loading was good around the tackle area; with players making good running angles to go through the gaps, and the support play was excellent throughout. On the down side Pethy again conceded too many penalties, the scrum was made to work hard, and the lineout struggled to secure their own ball consistently. In the backs there was a lot of sideways running, and there were too many handling errors when there was little pressure from the Martock defence.

Many thanks to The Swan Inn who sponsored the game and the match ball.

Tries: D.Steward (4), H.Brown (2), Lees, Havill, T.Williams, Gingell, M.Burge

Cons: T.Williams (5), L.Williams

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. S.Pearn (Rep: B.Williams, 40), 13. C.Burge, 12. Havill, 11. D.Steward, 10. L.Williams, 9. Jarvis, 1. M.Burge, 2. Glanville (Rep. Frost, 60), 3. H.Brown, 4. Coles, 5. Lees, 6. Gingell, 7. Wolfe, 8. M.Brown.