A comfortable win for Pethy

27/10/07 - Tribute Somerset One: North Petherton 38 v 5 Imperial

Report by Lloyd Williams

Winning the toss, Pethy started up the slope and against a slight headwind. They started poorly, not catching the kick off cleanly, and the visitors were given possession with a scrum. For the next 10 minutes Pethy defended and were made to chase back as the Imperial 10 constantly kicked behind Chris Wand on the wing. Only good defence kept the visitors from crossing the line after several waves of attacks.

Eventually though Petherton got their hands on the ball and moved up field with driving runs from both forwards and backs. After several phases of play, which took the ball towards the opposition 10 meter line, the ball was spread to fly-half Lloyd Williams who, with support from the rampaging Matt Burge causing the Imperial defence to take one eye off him, dummied his way through leaving him with just the fullback to beat, whom he then wrong footed to score under the posts. Tom Williams converted for a 7-0 lead.

Pethy’s next try started in similar circumstances, with several surging forward runs that took the ball up to the Imperial 10 meter line. This time in a set move, Lloyd Williams threw a long pass to outside centre Rob Havill who had several forwards supporting him. Being given space for probably the first time this season, Havill was able to get up speed, straighten first and then weave his way through the first line of defence before outpacing the full-back on the outside to score under the posts. Tom Williams again converted.

Petherton then lost control of the game for the next 15 minutes and struggled to get out of their half. After a knock-on on their 22 meter line, Pethy conceded a needless penalty soon after and this gave the visitors a kick to the corner. The Imperial pack then drove over from the resulting lineout to bring them back into the game, although the conversion was then missed.

The rest of the half featured some entertaining play from the home side as Pethy tried to run everything following several half breaks from both forwards and backs. As a result the visitors began to slow the play down, conceding many penalties in the process, which eventually saw them being reduced to 14 men when their loose-head prop was yellow carded. Pethy failed to fully take advantage of their good play as players were becoming isolated and began to get turned over, thus giving the visitors the chance to clear their lines. However, before half-time Tom Williams was able to stretch Petherton’s lead with two penalties in quick succession from wide out to make the score 20 points to 5 at the break.

Pethy’s hopes of a high scoring second half never really materialised. The first twenty minutes were very uneventful in terms of real attacking opportunities, although they were able to further extend their lead through two more well taken Tom Williams penalties.

Pethy became guilty of conceding more and more needless penalties themselves in the second period, sometimes taking the ball a phase too far and preventing quick ball, and generally letting the visitors control the speed of the game. Having put the Imperial scrum under pressure for most of the match Pethy began to concede several put-ins against the head. The only real positive from the second half performance was their defence, as every time the visitors tried to attack around the fringes they were met with an organised defensive line.

The backs, and noticeably Tom Williams, began to read the visitors kicking game and ran the ball back often, making good ground in the process. In the last twenty minutes Pethy managed to take control of possession again and scored two well taken tries. The first was a team effort, which started from a couple of forward pick and goes around the fringes, producing quick ball which was spread along the backs for full-back Tom Williams, who came into the line and side stepped his way through several players before off-loading well to a supporting team mate, and the ball went through the hands of several more backs and forwards, before landing in the hands of centre Russ Williams running at pace, who scored under the posts. For his troubles he was hit late whilst on the deck after scoring resulting in another yellow card for the opposition.

Pethy again went through a period were they struggled to get good possession and gave away some more needless penalties. However, during this time Pethy did come close to a scoring chance when a good take at the lineout saw James Lees make a break down the line before off-loading well into the hands of his supporting forwards before an unforced error ended the break.

In the last few minutes of the half Pethy’s final try came from an untidy lineout just inside the opposition half. The ball went through several phases creating a large blind side defended only by forwards, the ball found its way to Lloyd Williams who changed direction and ran blind, dummying his way through and finding himself up against the last defender before passing out to speedster Steve who cruised in for his first try for the club. Tom Williams unfortunately mis-kicked the easy conversion, which was a great shame because he had had an excellent kicking game until that point, kicking both long range goals and from tight angles. This was one of the last plays of the game and Pethy came off the pitch pleased with their efforts.

Ladd, a P.E teacher, who gave up rugby several years ago, had come on as a replacement early in the second half, looks to be a deadly finisher if given any sort of space, and being a sprinter throughout the summer he has shown great pace in the two 30 minute spells that he has been involved in for Pethy.

Both the forwards and backs defended far better than the previous week, mainly because they had spent most of the previous weeks training working on defensive organisation and tackling. The lineout was beginning to function well and was only hindered by a lack of practice as a team in the week. Mike Coles’s return to the second row shored up the pack, whilst prop’s Matt Burge and Harley Brown were everywhere in defence and attack. The backs looked dangerous with ball in hand and organised in defence. They were also looking more confident in spreading the ball wide quickly and in taking on defenders around the flanks. However, they are still not getting enough quick ball to do it consistently in open play.

H/T: 20-5

Tries: L.Williams, Havill, R.Williams, Ladd

Cons: T.Williams (3)

Pens: T.Williams (4)

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. Havill, 12. R.Williams, 11. Wand (Rep. Ladd, 50), 10. L.Williams, 9. Ryburuk, 1. M.Burge (Rep. Webber, 65), 2. Long, 3. H.Brown, 4. Coles, 5. Harvey, 6. Gingell, 7. M.Brown, 8. Lees. Rep Unused: Stone