Hapless Somerton outclassed by Petherton

19/10/08 - Somerset Vase Round 1: North Petherton 138 v 0 Somerton

Report by Chris Burge

Pethy fielded a very strong team to rectify and put right the mistakes from their loss a week before. Somerton fielded a very weak and injured side after playing a league game just only a day before and fielding only 14 players with no replacements.

With centre Chris Burge returning back from injury Matt Foad went on the wing with Ben Williams replacing the rested Tom Williams at full back. Also the work horse Harley Brown was away with family commitments - Kyle Prescott stepped into his boots. Adam Modrnyzski and Mike Coles, who had captained the seconds team the day before, were paired in the 2nd row replacing James Lees who still recovering with concussion, putting Gingell backrow to cover for Adam Harvey who was ill and Keith Robinson who was unavailable. Also there was a welcome return for hard hitting Russell Williams who was drafted to the bench the night before, he looked keen and quickly slotted into the centre.

It was no thriller of a game for the black and whites, but gave them an opportunity to try some new players and move players into different positions.

Straight from the kick off Somerton lost possession and with a few hands Rob Havill glided through their back line to open up the scoring with captain Lloyd Williams converting.

From then on Petherton dominated the game in all positions, the first twenty minutes was like a game of sevens - very quick and too much space. With a flurry of tries from C Burge, M Brown another for Havill and hooker Sam Williams.

The crowd was never speechless with a good turn out on a dry but fresh Sunday afternoon, after a very quick twenty minutes the coaches told the players to slow it down and use it as a training session with no disrespect to Somerton. But was very hard to fight human nature, as players were not getting tackled cleanly, therefore not setting up breakdowns, to get the phases going.

From then on every try was scored in open play and the Somerton players could not beat it.
Second half there was a change in the front row, Matt Burge coming off for Matt Angel who had a instant impact stealing the ball from a maul and running half the pitch before getting hit, he passed to Mike Taylor who took the tackle returning the off load back to Angel scoring under the posts.

The 2nd half was almost the same as the 1st, with tries from Ben Williams, Sam Williams scoring his double and Kyle Prescott crossing the line.

The only try of the game which was scored from a set piece was 1 of 4 from the big number 8 Matt Brown, with a superb lineout move the jumpers and runners creating space for the powerful no 8 to sprint down the touch line to score.
Towards the end of the game concentration slipped with the usual switched on hooker Sam Williams losing one against the head on a very good visitors scrum, with a smile he could not believe it.

With their scrumhalf under pressure from vet Kev Rybaruk all game, at one stage he nearly stole the ball off him unfortunately knocking it on, giving the scrum back to Somerton, which lead up to their best passage of play in the game, with their no 8 flicking it up to their scrum half which got passed down the line to their winger who gassed past an outstretched Mat Foad who only just caught him, which resulted in a turn over and another try for Pethy.

There were a few first team try scorers, Luke Williams who looked for the ball all afternoon, the welsh bulldozer Matt Angel who had an instant impact. Dan Rood with great support running claiming his 1st. Also the hatrick boys - captain Lloyd Williams with 3 and 14 conversions and powerhouse No8 Matt Brown with 4. A big thanks also goes to Rob Kearle, who was a late call up and when he came on he showed some of his younger club mates a trick or two.

Overall a good win for Pethy, who were clinical and shown some very good rugby, but got lazy with their defensive pattern towards the end at times. The bad element of the match was that Pethy only had two lineouts to practice new jumpers to replace the inspirational Lees. Men of the match were Somerton turning up after a league game the day before, they held their own for several phases, but eventually the pace of the attacks broke through the limited and disorganised defence, they tried to keep their heads up and kept the game going. Many thanks.

That game is history now and the club is looking forward to a hard match against Old Sulians at home.

Tries: M.Brown (4), Lloyd Williams (3), Luke Williams (2), Foad (2), S.Williams (2), Havill (2), Gingell, Prescott, Rood, Angel, Archer, B.Williams, C.Burge

Cons: L.Williams (14)

Pens:

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. B.Williams, 14. Foad, 13. C.Burge (Rep. R.Williams, 50), 12. Havill (Rep. Archer, 50), 11. Luke Williams, 10. Lloyd Williams, 9. Rybaruk, 1. Prescott, 2. S.Williams, 3. M.Burge (Rep. Angel, 40), 4. Modrzynski, 5. Coles (Rep. Rood, 40), 6. Gingell, 7. Taylor, 8. M.Brown.