Ivel's pace and power proves decisive

01/11/08 - Friendly: North Petherton III 7 v 39 Ivel Barbarians XV

Report by Cameron Kirk

Petherton’s second game of the season saw them entertain an Ivel team who had chosen to spend their “stag-day” afternoon at the rugby club.   Initial discussions with Ivel had centred around a stripper visiting the club.  Suffice to say, Cameron had no difficulty in finding a team!!  Unfortunately the hen found out prior to the game and the stripper was cancelled.  Petherton’s captain felt that it wouldn’t be a crime to “withhold” this information from his team as he knew their priority was the game.   HE WAS WRONG!! It’s true to say that there were some disappointed players and supporters when they eventually found out!

A minutes’ silence was held before the game for the tragic losses of Josh Evans, who would certainly have played for the 3rd team this season, and his grandfather Dougie Moles.

Ivel turned up with nearly 50 people and Petherton’s hopes of their team being a bit worse for wear were soon put to rest as they fielded a team packed with experience and pace.  They were also sober!!  Ivel’s pace and power caused constant problems for Petherton all afternoon and with the Pethy scrum and line out having off days they found themselves under a lot of pressure.  This was despite Petherton fielding their Australian based hooker Miles McNeillie.  Although he had not played in that position for some time, he seemed to take to it like a duck to riding a bike in water! However, Pethy continued to tackle hard, none more so than the diminutive Sam Tozer and Levi Crocker.  Pethy had their moments in the first half but couldn’t turn them into points, Ivel however crossed for four tries.

The second half was more of the same as Ivel continued to run the ball at every opportunity.  They crossed for a further 3 tries but also spurned several others, two were converted.  Petherton meanwhile made more chances in this half but some wrong decisions and two dropped passes cost them certain tries.  However, they eventually crossed the Ivel line through Archie Walford with the last play of the game, Cameron Kirk converted.

Once again the crowd had seen an entertaining game full of running rugby, although there was still the disappointment of not seeing Clarence Clatworthy attempt his now infamous drop goal. Kris Sewell had a good game in the centre, Levi Crocker tackled all day at flanker but Petherton’s man of the match was scrum-half Sam Tozer.

The post match celebrations continued into the night and despite coming second in the rugby, Petherton won both the “boat-race” and “flaming asses”.

Team: 
Bill Frost, Miles McNeillie, Gary Coles, Tony Scott, ,Clarence Clatworthy, Steve Hines, Tony Crocker, Levi Crocker, Lee Hughes, Steve Woods, Sam Tozer, Cameron Kirk, Dan Puddy, Kris Sewell, Jason Carter, Sean Jones, Ian Higgins, Ben Kirkpatrick , Archie Walford.