With a growing injury list and a few unavailabilities, Pethy were forced into a few unexpected changes. With no Andy Agar, Steve Doyle, James Lees and Keith Robinson the Pethy back row was light in numbers. So firstly they called on the very experienced Mark ‘Dinger’ Stevens, who has always been a specialist blind side and had been playing well for the seconds. Secondly the returning Marine Chris Burge, full-back by trade, who has been turned into a centre whilst at Pethy, was asked on his first training session back to run with the forwards just as a backup. He picked up the moves quickly and as a result was asked to start at open-side flanker. With all of the back line training recently, players were fighting for positions and two of the fastest players at the club could only get onto the bench.

The visitors won the toss and surprisingly elected to play down the slope and with the wind. Pethy got off to a reasonable start and had a penalty attempt straight after the kick-off; but unfortunately Tom Williams was unable to convert. Petherton then conceded four penalties one after the other which resulted in a total reverse of field position. The final penalty provided an easier opportunity and the Combe Down fly-half slotted it over to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

Pethy worked their way back up the field after the restart, gaining possession quickly, but a poor kick over the top resulted in a 22m drop out. Pethy went on the attack again, and ground was gained quickly through some good off-loading in the tackle area, as well as some good breaks by Pethy’s backline. On about 10 minutes, a couple of quick phases of play gave the backs a chance to run at an unorganised defence just outside the visitors 22. The ball went to Lloyd Williams who drew the first defender and found Matt Foad who had cut an angle into a gap and went through to score. Again Tom Williams had another rare miss with the conversion.

It was clear from the start that the visitors were going to be put under a lot of pressure in the scrum, and the now regular Pethy front 5 were in tremendous form, pushing the Combe Down pack backwards at almost every scrum. This meant their possession was dramatically cut, and Pethy were dominating the game for the rest of the first-half. Good interplay between Pethy’s backs and forwards made it very hard for the visitors to stop the attacks.

Another solid scrum on the Down 22 after 20 minutes allowed Pethy to run a blindside move which resulted in right wing Ben Williams scoring a good try. Tom Williams’ conversion was off target, but Pethy had established a 10-3 lead. However, despite dominating most areas of the game, Petherton were conceding too many penalties again, and this allowed Combe Down to keep themselves in the game when the visiting fly-half nailed an excellent long range penalty to make the score 10-6 after 30 minutes.

Petherton continued to play some good open rugby, creating quick ball and keeping possession well, allowing them to get into scoring areas, but a lack of composure and more penalty offences allowed Combe Down to clear. Shortly before half-time, a moment of individual skill by full-back Tom Williams finally put Pethy in control of the game. Standing in the line at first receiver, he was given quick ball from a ruck and chipped over the rush defence, collecting his kick after a favourable bounce and out-pacing the covering defenders to score. He missed the conversion from wide-out but Pethy went into half-time with a 15-6 lead.

The second half started with Petherton determined to cut out the penalties and keep up the intensity of their play. Pethy dominated well from the start but again penalties cost them territory. They also became rushed in attack and often tried too hard to off-load the ball, resulting in play from both teams becoming scrappy and open. During the early stages the visitors young scrum half, who was under great pressure due to the dominating Pethy pack, was yellow carded for repeatly feeding ball into the scrum.

The home team took control after this, and good forward play and rush defence resulted in a scrum on the visitors five metre line. After several more phases, quick ball was sent out along the line where Matt Foad cut through half a gap in the defence before being well tackled near the line. However, he managed to pop the ball out from under his arm to the supporting Matt Brown who scored under the posts. Tom Williams then converted.

Pethy had more scoring chances after that, but knock-on’s cost them two certain tries. Pethy did cross the line on a further two occasions but were well held up by some more determined defending. Silly penalties continued to cost Pethy dear, allowing the visitors to exert some sustained pressure on the Pethy try-line during the middle of the second half. However they were met with some huge tackles and powerful rucking which relieved the pressure. During this time Matt Brown was also yellow carded for conceding two blatantly offside penalties straight after each other. Fortunately, this did not affect things greatly up front as Pethy’s forwards continued to dominate.

Having kept out the visitors, Pethy then took several quick tap penalties which ended with powerful second row Mike Coles charging his way over to score what looked to be a great try, only for the ref to disallow it because he couldn’t see the grounding. Another solid scrum on the visitors line allowed Lloyd Williams to take the ball across the pitch, and with the centre’s holding the drift defence, a gap opened and he found Tom Williams running at pace to go over untouched. He converted his own try under the posts to stretch the lead to 29–6.

Near the end with Pethy conceding penalties left, right, and centre, the visitors pounded the Pethy try line, but were kept out. At one point the visitors stretched the Pethy defence left and right quickly, resulting in a break with their speedy winger away, but he was smashed into touch on the try line by the covering Mike Coles and Rob Havill, who had run the width of the pitch, saving a certain try. This emphasized the commitment of the players in defence.

With minutes to go Pethy had worked their way down field to the try line, and several quick phases of play saw the ball go to Matt Burge on the wing who, with Steve Ladd in support, crashed his way over with Ladd driving him on. Tom Williams then made an excellent conversion to make it 36-6.

On the restart, which was the final play, a clear catch and off-load to Matt Brown allowed him to run down field where he off-loaded to Nick Pocock who was on his shoulder, and he showed great awareness to off-load again to Lloyd Williams who fed his backs, but with a try looking imminent a knock-on in the tackle stopped the attack and the match was over.

This was an entertaining match, fairly open and with both sides playing in the spirit of the game and clearly enjoying themselves. Pethy off-loaded well in the tackle areas and the interplay between backs and forwards was much better than in recent matches. The Pethy defence was again water tight and the first up tackling was aggressive, often knocking opposition players backwards in the contact. However, Pethy were guilty of giving away far too many penalties and putting themselves under unnecessary pressure throughout.

Back rowers Chris Burge, who recently became a Dad for the first time last Saturday, and veteran Mark Stevens, both had excellent games. Even though Chris has lost a couple of stones thanks to his Marine training, he was still putting in some huge tackles and making his presence known at the rucks. The front 5 were outstanding as a unit, especially prop Matt Burge, who put in a few huge tackles in mid-field and scrummaged excellently. All the forwards were involved in many of the attacks, showing good hands and off-loading well in the tackle. No.8 Matt Brown was given a bit more space by the opposition than in recent weeks and went on some powerful charges.

The backs in open play looked very dangerous with players running onto the ball well and running some nice angles. It was only a few too many handling errors that prevented them from scoring a few more tries, but they seemed to have more confidence to throw the ball around, and as a result made some great breaks, some of which resulted in outstanding team tries. Wing Bradley Archer was everywhere, looking for work and making a lot of hard yards.

With 3 weeks off in the league, Petherton hope to continue the good turnout’s at training and keep the momentum going. The rest should also allow the injured player’s time to recover, ready for a tense and exciting end to the season.

H/T: 15-6

Tries: Foad, B.Williams, T.Williams (2), M.Brown, M.Burge

Cons: T.Williams (3)

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. Archer (Rep. Ladd, 60), 13. R.Williams (Rep. Havill, 55), 12. Foad, 11. B.Williams, 10. Lloyd Williams, 9. Rybaruk, 1. M.Burge, 2. Glanville (Rep. Pocock, 70), 3. Kingston, 4. Coles, 5. Gingell, 6. Stevens, 7. C.Burge, 8. M.Brown.