Pethy's 'Bad Day At The Office'

20th February 2010 - Tribute Western Counties West:
Devonport Services 35 - 6 North Petherton

Report by Jerry Upfield

North Petherton had to appoint an on-field captain in James Carter because of the unavailability of club captain Lloyd Williams to travel, and in the first few minutes it must have seemed an easy job for the debut captain, with Pethy having the majority of the opening play and going
3 nil in front through a well taken penalty by Tom Williams with 5 minutes played. Although this was not how the match went on for the visitors, with too many knock-ons and lost possession in the sticky underfoot conditions and at 9 minutes Devonport's centre intercepted a loose mid-field pass to run in virtually uncontested. The try was converted and that was the last time that Pethy were in front during this match.

A penalty in the 16th minute saw the home side increase their tally to 10 -3. Pethy were trying to play slick fast rugby with a very flat back line, but time and time again poor handling was to let them down and the decision to attempt to play this type of rugby in the awful conditions, must be questioned ?

Pethy battled hard in the rucks and mauls but were thwarted out behind with their opponents up very quickly with a rush defence. This wasn't helped by the referee who seemed to miss a lot of 'off-side play' !

The home side scored another try in the corner to take the score to 15-3 at half time.

During the break harsh words were dispensed by coach John Evans and travelling injured player Mike Taylor but within 3 minutes of the restart Pethy were on the receiving side again after a poor clearance from their twenty two. This took the score to 20-3.

Some consolation for the visitors came in the 15th minute of the second spell, from a well taken penalty by Tom Williams moving the score to 20-6.

Matt Brown, who was suffering from a bout of flu was replaced by Andrew Long and Matt Foad relinquished his position to Harry Roberts on the wing. But the damage had already been done and the much improved Devonport Services side were soon scoring again, this time from a "training park move" at the line out. The conversion was made and after a converted penalty they were out-of-sight at 30-6.

Petherton's afternoon was summed up when an innocuous kick through by the Services prop in the dying minutes was not seized upon and Pethy were caught off-side. From the resulting penalty touch kick and line out Devonport scored another unconverted try and the game finished at 35-6.

After this "bad day at the office", next week Pethy have a rest day from the Western Counties West league and it will be a chance from some injured players to recover and to maybe re-think some tactics before their next match at home against highflyer's Kingsbridge on the 6th March.

Team:

15 - Chris Burge
14 - Matthew Foad
13 - David Hallaran
12 - James Carter (Capt)
11 - Jamie Adams
10 - Tom Williams
9 - Matthew Ranson

1 - Simon Ranson
2 - Sam Williams
3 - Kyle Prescott
4 - James Cox
5 - Adam Modzrynski
6 - Miles McNellie
7 - Ben Tarr
8 - Matthew Brown.

Replacements:

16 - Craig Goodwin
17 - Andrew Long
18 - Harry Roberts