Pethy fail to take top spot from local rivals Burnham

06/12/08 - Tribute Somerset Premier: Burnham-On-Sea 17 v 12 North Petherton

Report by Lloyd Williams

This match had all the ingredients to be a classic, Burnham have been dominant in the league, scoring freely and had previously beaten Pethy at the start of the season in the EDF competition. Pethy had a score to settle. With this Pethy had its largest crowd of travelling supporters and Burnham had a players reunion, this made for a substantial crowd, all expecting an exciting game. Unfortunately the weather had played its part on the conditions, the pitch looked good at first, but you could soon see that it would cut up and limit the quality of expansive rugby, but what ended up playing a bigger part was the defences from both teams at times made long periods of stalemate.

Pethy had received yet more bad news during the week, as loyal club supporter and Grandfather to first team player James Lees, Burt Cleverley had passed away. As a result James withdrew from the squad and there was a minute silence before the game.

The game started and it was clear to see territory was the name of the game, both 10’s traded a kick looking to pin each other back. As a result the game went from end to end and both teams had to defend their lines. Pethy had a couple of attacks down the side of debut winger Craig Goodwin, but the ball was slow resulting in Craig receiving the ball on the touch line and with defenders swarming. But there were glimpses of what he had to offer in terms of speed and strength, if only Pethy could get the ball to him in space.

Pethy knew that the Burnham no.10 was going to make a meal out of anything slightly late and it was Matt Brown who fell fowl to this and was yellow carded after a spectacular dive. The very next lineout Burnham made use of the missing Brown at the back of the lineout and the gap appeared and the lively flanker was only just pulled down before the try line, however quick ball was fed to Burnham’s Tongan prop who hit the ball at pace and crashed over untouched, Piper made up for a rare penalty miss earlier and made the conversion.
This got Pethy going, soon after Tom Williams had a penalty attempt go wide and after a huge penalty kick by Lloyd Williams which ended up 10m from the Burnham line, Sam Williams crashed his way over after good work by all the forwards, Tom was unable to convert.

The rest of the half continued end to end, but with no noticeable scoring chances. Just before the whistle Burnham extended their lead, with a scrum just outside the Pethy 22m which had been put under great pressure by Pethy and was going backwards, Burnham 8 picked and popped to Piper, Pethy froze expecting a forward pass, and Piper was away, as he was tackled by Tom Williams he off loaded to ex-Albion Rob Watts who dived over for the score, Piper converted.

The second half continued as the first, it was not until 20 minutes to go that indiscipline cost Pethy more points and Piper kicked a penalty.

With time running out Pethy tried to run the ball from everywhere and continued to be let down by unforced errors and the final pass. There was a change of a score when Neil Lennox fed Lloyd Williams a quick tap penalty, he sent a neat chip over the defence, which he picked up and continued the attack, with just defence closing in, he was unable to release the ball to the rampaging Mike Taylor who had a golden opportunity to score under the posts.

With 10 minutes to go Pethy were attacking in numbers deep inside the Burnham 22m, in which the ball went lose and Keith Robinson gathered and jinked his way over, Tom Williams successfully converted, making for a exciting end to the match.

After absorbing huge pressure after the restart by a Burnham onslaught, Pethy moved up field with one last lineout deep in the Burnham half. But as had happened in most of the game the ball was slow coming out the backs and they looked static and uninventive and got tackled behind the game line and the match was over.

Generally Pethy defended well, but the problem was they only played well for brief periods in attack, it was either the Burnham defence aggressive defence or their forwards disrupting the low of quick and clean ball, which was constantly limiting Pethy’s attacking options. Pethy made little use of their dangerous back three of Williams, Archer and Goodwin, often seeing the ball getting stuck in midfield or not getting that far as Neil Lennox was constantly harassed at the breakdown and set peace. The whole teams made to many basic unforced errors, turning over the ball and the penalty count was again a big factor. It seems a lot of negative things but all the players were just being honest in their post game chat. It was mention that the wheels have certainly not fallen off but everyone was frustrated with the standard of play.

Both teams will be disappointed with the rugby on show, but Burnham were clearly delighted with the results and continue their good run in the league, Pethy will have to wait until the end of the season to get revenge.

Pethy have no game this week, but have a tough trip to Winscombe before Christmas and will be required to up their game to get the result they require.

Unfortunately, this was the last game for Marine Chris Burge, who is leaving his Taunton base for officer training and is then being posted to Australia early next year.

HT: 14-5

Tries: S.Williams, Robinson

Cons: T.Williams

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. Archer, 13. C.Burge, 12. Foad, 11. Goodwin, 10. Lloyd Williams, 9. Lennox, 1. Angel, 2. S.Williams, 3. Prescott (Rep. Modrzynski, 45), 4. Gingell, 5. Coles, 6. Robinson, 7. Taylor, 8. M.Brown. Reps Unused: B.Williams, Wolfe