Pethy gain valuable win despite poor performance

20/12/08 - Tribute Somerset Premier: Winscombe 6 v 8 North Petherton

Report by Lloyd Williams

With the flu and general illness sweeping the country, several players were completely ruled out and many more were dragged from their sick beds. Andy Long and Lloyd Steward volunteered their services and stepped up to the bench as the 2nds match was postponed.

Pethy lost the toss and had to play down the slope and against a strong headwind. The match started at a frantic pace with both teams trying to throw the ball around. The home side did this mainly through their speedy back 3 and using their powerful and straight running centre, who caused Pethy’s backs problems all afternoon. Pethy where running the ball through both backs and forwards, gaining good ground when the forwards were consistently supplying the backs with quick clean ball.

This was making for a good game, however the issue for Pethy was the constant stream of penalties, within 10 minutes the home side had 4 shots on goal, luckily only converting one. By this point the pitch was being to cut up and the speed and standard of play was decreasing. Another penalty meant the home side went 6 – 0 up.

This gave Pethy chance to get down the other end of the pitch and after 5 minutes of intense pressure, in which the ball went from side to side, the try eventually came. Tom Williams diving over after hitting the line at pace and receiving the ball from a neat pass back inside from Lloyd Williams. The conversion was missed from out wide. The rest of the half the penalty count continued to rise for both teams and the pitch became more and more unsuitable for expansive rugby.

The second half, Pethy were mostly camped in the Winscombe end, however they could not get the score required. It became even more of a very stop start game and this began to affect all the players and tempers frayed, Pethy conceded penalty after penalty, which relieved the pressure for the home side.

Without the score, Pethy were guilty of forcing the game and began to make more and more unforced errors, which often resulted in quick counter attacks, but luckily the defence was holding out.

It was not until 10 minutes to go that Pethy were awarded their first penalty of the second half, which was in range and Tom Williams calmly slotted it over for Pethy to go into the lead.

In the last 10 minutes Winscombe had 2 real try scoring breaks from deep in their own half, after sustained attacks from Pethy had broken down. The first was just stopped before the try line by a combination of tackles firstly by Tom Williams and then by Neil Lennox and Matt Brown who had raced the length of the pitch to prevent the try. The other was very similar and yet again Tom Williams held up the attack long enough for support to arrive.

Eventually the final whistle went and Pethy got a valuable away win.

The forwards slogged it out and all had a solid game. They made it hard work for the home team to get quick ball for the lively backs. Mike Taylor, who was clearly suffering with the illness, put in a huge number of tackles. The forwards also made useful contributions when they found themselves in the backline.

The backs struggled in the conditions and after the first 15 minutes in which they had looked dangerous with quick ball and were causing problems for the home side, went off the boil. Craig Goodwin yet again looked dangerous but wasn’t given the ball in space. On the other wing Ben Williams had an outstanding game in defence, making some great tackles on his opposite number. They will be disappointed with the number of missed tackles, allowing the Winscombe players to break the line too often. With the breakdowns becoming more and messier as the game went on, Neil Lennox had a tough day supplying the backs with clean quick ball.

A win is a win.

After the Christmas break Pethy have a massive test when they play Tor away, who are equal on points, but have a game in hand.

HT: 6-5

Tries: T.Williams

Cons:

Pens: T.Williams

Drop Goals:

Team: 15. T.Williams, 14. B.Williams, 13. C.Burge, 12. Foad, 11. Archer (Rep. Luke Williams, 70), 10. Lloyd Williams, 9. Lennox, 1. Angel, 2. S.Williams, 3. Modrzynski (Rep. H.Brown, 60), 4. Gingell, 5. Coles, 6. Tarr (Rep. Robinson, 10), 7. Taylor, 8. M.Brown.