Pethy traveled without seven possible first team players and the training turnout had been poor during the week, but they were still confident in the team selected. However, right from the start it was not going to be their day. Playing up the slight slope, Pethy had a good positional lineout in the opposition half, however jumper James Lees lifters were taken out from under him and he came down on his back, luckily unhurt. When questioned the ref said it was fine and this gave the home team license to do it all game. To make matters worse the ref took offence to being questioned about the danger of this, and for the next fifteen minutes every time the home team broke into the Pethy half they were awarded a penalty at the first breakdown, for a wide range of offences. The home team kicker was on song and slotted every one and Pethy found themselves 15 – 0 down without really touching the ball.

The home team 10 kicked deep and Pethy were unable to attack from their own half or secure the ball. For the rest of the half Pethy could not string more than two phases together, with the slightly larger home team pack making a nuisance of themselves at the breakdown slowing and stealing the ball. Both teams conceded a huge amount of penalties and it became a stop start game, with both teams becoming frustrated with the poor quality of the game.

Pethy came close a few times with lineout drives, but never crossed the line, and their backs struggled to get going with the lack of decent possession that they were getting. Tom Williams had a penalty attempt that went just wide and that was the end of Pethy’s attacking spell before half-time. With yet more penalties conceded, Pethy were pegged back to their own line, and Lloyd Williams as captain tried to discuss the offences with the official but was only sent abruptly away, to the frustration of all.

Just before the half time whistle the home team had a scrum on the five meter line, after a lineout was driven over the line but the ball was held up. Not for the first time the man on the side of the scrum was allowed to pick the ball up, he was supported quickly by the rest of the back row who pushed him over, and it was well converted for a big half-time lead for the hosts.

The second half started well, and for the first time Pethy were allowed to put together more than two phases of play and eventually found their way deep into the opposition half. The forwards produced quick ball and Neil Lennox fed Lloyd Williams who changed the direction of attack, spotting forwards marking the large blind, and using his supporting runners as decoys was able to apply the finishing touch to give Pethy the boost they needed. It was converted by Tom Williams.

A poor restart gave the home team a line out just inside the Pethy 10m, and a clever move saw the home seven, who caused problems all game with his powerful runs, charge down the line breaking tackles. He drew in the last defenders, and offloaded it, and it was easily run in, and again it was well converted.

The game then went back to the same stop-start standard as the first half. With Pethy seeing the game going away from them they stepped up a gear and began to attack in numbers. A great move down the right saw some great quick hands by both forwards and backs, before prop Matt Burge gave the final pass to wing Jamie Adams who was bundled into touch short of the line. Burge was upended late in the move and a scuffle began as Simon Gingell tried to get the tackler off Burge, and as the ref approached the two players to stop it, Gingell was headbutted, which resulted in the Culverhaysians tight-head prop splitting his head open after connecting with Gingell’s teeth. No action was taken, to the frustration of captain Williams who asked the ref if he had not seen the incident, but the ref instead then threatened to send Williams off for asking the question. He bizarrely kept referring to a previous game, last season, when he had yellow carded Williams for not seeing one of his team mates make a late tackle.

Not long after Pethy had a lineout on the opposition 22, and seeing that the fullback was in the line, Lloyd Williams chipped through and won the chase to the ball, grounding it a meter inside the dead ball line, the reaction of both teams suggested a try, however as Williams got up and turned the ref disallowed the try, suggesting it had gone dead, and this killed any chance of an unlikely comeback.

With time running out Pethy tried to attack from everywhere and chose to run the continuing high number of penalties. With five minutes remaining and deep in the opposition 22, the forwards constantly threatened to break through with great runs by Lees, Harley Brown and Gingell, but yet another fight broke out with Keith Robinson being held down by the home team replacement prop. As players tried to drag him off, the replacement centre ran in from the backline and carried on the punching. It eventually stopped and the ref, who admitted he saw the punching by the opposition players, again did nothing and just gave the penalty. Eventually the game ended and the score remained 29-7.

There were very little positives to take away from this game. Veteran replacement Mark Sutherland-Earl came on in the second half to become the Petherton player with the most first team caps (289) since records started in 1994, although in his career it is closer to 600! There was also a positive debut for powerhouse lock Wayne Pither, who looks committed to push for his place in the first team. Flanker Keith Robinson was the pick of the team, tackling himself to a stand still and was a general menace to the home team throughout.

Culverhaysians played a tight game for most of the time and their pack made inroads into the Pethy defence and made it very hard for the traveling side to get any sort of control on the game. Pethy were hugely disappointed with the standard of the game and frustrated that they did not take control of a match that they needed a result from. Hopefully players will return from injury and there will be a good turn out at training this week before next weekend’s match against unbeaten Broad Plain.

H/T: 22-0

Tries: L.Williams

Cons: T.Williams

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. B.Williams (Rep. Sutherland-Earl, 65), 14. Adams, 13. L.Williams, 12. Havill, 11. Archer, 10. T.Williams, 9. Lennox, 1. H.Brown, 2. Long, 3. Kingston, 4. Pither, 5. Pocock (Rep. M.Burge, 55), 6. Gingell, 7. Robinson, 8. Lees. Rep Unused: 18. R.Williams