20th February 2010 - Tribute Somerset Two South:

Martock 0 v 12 North Petherton II

Report by Ben Williams

Petherton travelled to Martock with only 14 players as several injuries within the 1st XV squad led to three call ups on Friday night. However, Second team coach Harley Brown made an unexpected comeback from a serious neck injury to make up the full compliment of 15 players.

Despite these changes Petherton started of brightly making inroads into Martock’s defence at will. However, poor passes and handling led to the breakdown of many attacks.

Petherton’s powerhouse second row of Phil Hambley scored the first try, running in from 15m for a score out wide. The conversion was missed by the returning Mark Sutherland-Earl.

10 minutes later after more broken down attacks the ball came wide to skipper Ben Williams who gave an inside pass to Hambley who again crashed over to score. This time Sutherland-Earl added the extras to make it 12-0 at half time.

The second half continued as the first had finished with Petherton’s pack securing good ball and stealing the oppositions lineout and Nathan Murdoch winning most of Martocks feeds in the scrums. But despite all this possession the same persistant problems of poor passes and handling resulted in the breakdown of play. Petherton never really looked like conceding any points, but were obviously disappointed not to win by a far larger scoreline.
Despite this there were plenty of positive to take, the lineout and scrums performed much better and the return of several players was a welcome sight.

Next week Petherton host Chard 2nds.