Indiscipline and a disallowed try leads to a frustrating defeat

13/09/08 - Tribute Somerset Premier: Midsomer Norton 20 v 14 North Petherton

Report by Ben Williams

Petherton travelled to Midsomer Norton for the first game of their Somerset Premier League campaign after last year’s promotion, confident of a good performance against a team that finished third in their league campaign last year.

However things didn’t start too brightly for Petherton giving away penalties and territory in the early exchanges. Norton with a young athletic side passed the ball quickly forcing Petherton into a number of desperate last ditch tackles and eventually after numerous phases scored up the blind side after ten minutes, they missed the following conversion.

Petherton responded in typical fashion with some good phases of ball carrying rugby, which resulted in a penalty which unfortunately Tom Williams drifted just wide. Petherton continued to play some aggressive rugby through their dominating forwards and were rewarded after 25 minutes with a try from Simon Gingell, after a powerful run in which he was stopped and then drove over Norton’s line with the support of his marauding pack. Tom Williams kicked the resulting conversion to give Petherton a 7 – 5 lead. Norton responded with some strong, fast play in which they were camped in Petherton’s 22 for the remainder of the half after their inability to clear their lines from good clean ball from both line outs and scrums. Norton scored in the 43rd minute of the first half after some ten minutes of sustained pressure in which Petherton’s defence was solid. Norton missed the following conversion to lead 10 – 7 at half time.

Petherton turned around at half time determined to make amends for a slightly lacklustre first half, but were put straight under pressure from Norton with some last ditch tackling from Matt Foad and Ben Williams preventing Norton’s hooker from scoring. Norton kicked a penalty a few minutes later to extend their lead to 13 - 7. During a frantic passage of play, and the whole Pethy team counter rucking, especially Keith Robinson, the home side were rattled and their flanker decided to lay into Robinson while on the deck. Ben Tarr was on hand to pull him away, Tarr and the flanker were both carded.

Petherton’s pack continued to dominate the scrum and lineout winning good ball to set up some good attacks, however after some sloppy handling Norton found themselves down on Petherton’s line, but conceded a penalty for holding on, Petherton however managed to reverse the penalty through some poor self discipline in which Norton’s scrum half took a quick tap penalty which resulted in a try despite Tom Williams and Simon Gingell clearly having the player held up over the line, but the ref was unwilling to look and awarded the try from a blind again and 10m away. 20 - 7. This clearly infuriated Petherton who felt harshly delt with. Captain Lloyd Williams made a typical jinking run through Norton’s defence after some good play from Petherton’s pack in which he was tackled by the full back, where he off loaded to Tom Williams to score under the posts, but, to Petherton’s amazement the try was disallowed with a penalty being awarded to Norton, with the alleged offence being captain Williams apparent obstruction on the opposing full back despite himself being tackled by said player. Petherton however did score soon after with an excellently executed training ground move finished off by winger Ben Williams, in which most of the team played a part.

Petherton clearly lifted by this try threw everything at Norton and continued to make ground up the hill. Petherton made a couple of substitutions at this point with Andy Long coming on for the excellent Sam Williams at hooker and colt Toby Harris making his first team debut in place of the ever hardworking Keith Robinson. With a few minutes to go Petherton had sustained pressure in Norton’s 22 and after a great line out steel from James Lees who had an excellent game at second row, Petherton drove on towards Norton’s line. A scrum was awarded to Pethy in which Petherton’s No 8 Matt Brown picking and driving with the support of new boy Ben Tarr, however Petherton’s indiscipline again let them down when the entire front row were involved in a altercation with their opposite numbers when a try was beckoning, Norton were handed the resulting penalty where they cleared their lines and then the final whistle was blown. The second half was still full of indiscipline by both sides and even though Pethy were camped in the home teams half for long periods and with most of the possession, they were not awarded a single penalty in the home teams half, keeping Tom Williams from taking shots at goal, which became more and more frustrating for supporters as well as players.

All the forwards played especially well, Colts flyer Jamie Adams saw little ball in open space to utilise his speed, but up against a big powerful winger, took him down every time, something that the majority of other backs needed to do more of, often they were tackling to high and getting bumped off.

This was a very disappointing result for Petherton whose forwards were clearly the dominate force within the game however indiscipline with some poor decision making at times made this an uphill task from the start. However they can be encouraged from a performance against a solid Somerset Premier side that will hopefully put them in good stead for the rest of the season.

Petherton play Stothert & Pitt next week on the 20th September in a double header in both the league and Somerset Cup competition.

H/T: 10-7

Tries: Gingell, B.Williams

Cons: T.Williams (2)

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. C.Burge, 12. Foad, 11. Adams, 10. Lloyd Williams, 9. Rybaruk, 1. Prescott, 2. S.Williams (Rep. Long, 70), 3. H.Brown, 4. Lees, 5. Gingell, 6. Tarr, 7. Robinson (Rep. T.Harris, 65), 8. M.Brown. Rep (Unused): Coles