23rd January 2010 - Tribute Somerset Two South:

North Petherton II 14 v 7 Taunton III

Report by Ben Williams

Petherton were playing their first game for 7 weeks and to start off it showed ! Lack of training and games over the Christmas and New Year period led to basic mistakes being made all over the field. Even so, Petherton still managed to put together some good phases of play in the first half only to be denied by both poor decision making and some good defence from Taunton.

The first score came after 25 minutes when Taunton’s scrum half made a surging run from their own half off the back of a scrum. He was denied on Petherton’s line by some last ditch tackles, but the resulting wave of support ensured they crashed over for a deserved score. Petherton fought back well but could not score playing up the slope.

After some strong words at half time Petherton came out and played some better rugby, winning clean ball from the scrum and giving the backs opportunities to run the ball. Fly half Harry Roberts missed a penalty kick after 10 minutes. Taunton were awarded a penalty from the resulting 22m re-start . They chose to take it quickly and second row Wayne Pither tackled the player, but was deemed by the referee not to have retreated 10 metres and was sent to the sin-bin. Petherton did not concede during this period, but came close themselves.

With Pither returning the scrum was back to full strength and after some good play, Petherton had a scrum on Taunton’s 5 metre line. Following a pick and go from No 8 Chris Richards, the ball came to Miles McNellie who demonstrated some good ball juggling skills. This seemed to confuse the Taunton defence, which opened up for him to score. Roberts kicked the conversion to bring it level at 7 points each.

Petherton then scored again within 5 minutes through Chris Richards after some strong play by the forwards. Roberts added the extras to make it 14-7. Petherton should then have run away with it, but basic errors came back to haunt them. Taunton were camped in Petherton’s 22 for the last 10 minutes, during which time Petherton had two players sent to the sin-bin for some cynical play.

In Taunton's final onslaught they threw the ball wide when keeping it tight would’ve been the better option. Even so, they managed to create an overlap and a last ditch covering tackle by skipper and full back Ben Williams stopped them short of the line. He and Lloyd Steward bundled the Taunton player into touch for the referee to blow for full time.

Team: Kearle, Sellick, Pocock, Tew, Pither, Harris, McNellie, Richards, Stenson, Roberts, L. Williams, Stevens, Tozer, Palmer, B. Williams. Reps (all used) Burge, Jennings, Wand, Steward.